


You don't love me anymore

by cockabeetle, Kymopoleia



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Most of those relationships are pretty minor to be honest, Multi, Octavian fucks up, yay foursomes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-19 16:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2395253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cockabeetle/pseuds/cockabeetle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Kymopoleia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason sighed, and glanced up at her, worry clear in his expression. "What does it mean if your significant other repeatedly left dangerous animals for you to find later?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is has so many headcanons and other things, just  
> accept it as it is ;;;

Jason wakes up at 2 in the morning, every morning, to pee, and to get a snack. Today, he goes to the bathroom, still half-asleep, and is greeted by large shape, about 3 feet tall. He goes about his business, and goes to the kitchen. The shape, a lion it turns out, follows. Jason gives him a bloody piece of meat, and lets it follow him to bed.

Octavian knows about Jason's habits, and that is probably why he was extorting them. The current habit was his nighttime bathroom break, and when he felt the bed to his left shift, he sleepily reached out to the bedside table for the coke he kept there- it was just as good at waking him up as it was putting him to sleep. Now he takes a swig of it, and curls up in the blanket to wait. Unfortunately, however, his plan backfires and his eyes close completely. He's out within a moment, no longer caring about the murder attempt being staged down the hall. Or... Medea.

Jason passes his pretty little girl, his 18-foot boa constrictor Medea, in the hall. He smiles sleepily, and leads Fluffy back to his room, the door swinging mostly shut. He climbs onto his side of the bed, and Fluffy climbs over him to cuddle. The lion looks like a dandelion, and its tail has a puff on the end, is the last thing Jason thinks before falling asleep.

Octavian sleeps peacefully for an hour more before he feels something long and thin slap his leg. Thinking it's his boyfriend's snake, Octavian screams and jumps onto the warm body beside him, arms and legs wrapping around its furry (furry?) body.

Fluffy makes a confused murmur, and Jason pets what he thinks to be the lion's shoulder. "Shh..."

Octavian feels a hand come from further left, and the sound of the door creaking open- he's glad Jason didn't fix it- and Medea slithers in. Understandably, Octavian freaks out, jumping over the creature to wrap around what _really should be_ Jason. He buries his face in Jason's chest.

Jason grunts. "Mm?" Fluffy murmurs again, and Medea climbs up onto the bed.

Octavian is having trouble breathing- he has a fear of Medea eating him. She is, after all, a snake easily three times his size. With muscles stronger than he wants to know. And her teeth- Octavian mumbles loudly into Jason, voice high with fright.

Jason grumbles, and pats his back. "Shh, he's harmless."

Octavian hits Jason with his left hand- lightly, barely even causing a thump. "She's right behind me she's gonna kill me I'm not ready to meet Pluto and Letus I haven't done anything remarkable" Octavian whimpers.

"The lion will protect you, shhh..." Jason mumbles.

Octavian shook his head. "Jason." he mumbled back, still scared- the lion was the only thing between him and Jason's pet of _death_.

Fluffy cuddles up to Jason's back, and Jason moved so Octavian was on his other side, cuddled to his chest. Jason was already asleep.

Octavian, begrudgingly, falls back asleep again, but only because Jason was warm. When he wakes up, he presses a kiss to Jason's neck, then cuddles closer- he was far from a morning person.

Jason grumbles softly, and sits up. He had a meeting with Reyna. Why did she insist on meeting in the morning? He got out of bed, dressing, and both Snake and Lion followed. There was a meow at the door, too.

When Octavian hears his baby- a beautiful fluffy Persian named Denny- he sits up and beckons for her. "C'mere." he mumbles, hair all sticking up.

Jason leads the parade of animals out into the kitchen, hands Medea her rat, and when Denny paws his leg he hands her a sardine, as always. He gives Fluffy another bloody slab of meat, and makes himself some coffee.

Denny comes to him after three minutes and sixteen seconds. Octavian cuddles her, and falls over on the mattress, carefully coddling her. She smells fishy, but he doesn't care.

Medea follows Jason out of the house, as always, and Fluffy trails him too. Dakota and the others in 5th Cohort stare wide eyed and ask where the lion came from. Jason tells them he found it in his bathroom and now he thinks it might be his pet.

Octavian takes about a half hour to get ready, and ends up walking to the meeting house- he was technically supposed to be there with Jason, but he was not awake enough for that- and sits down in the corner. He's still cuddling Denny, eyes half shut.

Fluffy sits on his haunches next to Jason, who keeps nodding off as he and Reyna wait for the meeting house to fill. She asked him about Fluffy, but he told her what he told Dakota, along with mentioning naming him Fluffy because he looked like a dandelion.

Octavian manages to drift off, but is awakened when something pounds in the front of the room. His head shoots up, and he mumbles "m up, m up." as he pulls Denny close and starts to comb through her hair with his fingers.

Medea has draped herself across Jason's shoulder and burrowed her face into his toga. He pets along her back, and yawns. Once the house is full enough to Reyna's liking, she begins the meeting. Jason doesn't really pay attention.

Octavian tries to pay attention, he really does, but his toga keeps slipping, and Denny is purring in his ears, and he hasn't had breakfast yet. So, he stares down at Jason.

Fluffy wanders up to Octavian and curls around him, rumbling what might be a purr. Medea's head has poked out the other side of Jason's toga, and she's wandering down his side now. Reyna continues, pretending not to notice the other Praetor being molested by his snake.

Octavian freezes the moment the snake starts moving down Jason. Partial jealousy and intense fear spark in his heart.

Jason giggles, and pets her head, and Reyna sighs. "Jason..."

Jason gently tugs Medea's head so she's facing Reyna. "Lookit her face! She's so pretty~"

"You're out of coffee aren't you."

Octavian takes a deep breath, trying not to panic.

Jason pets Medea's head, and the snake's tongue flicks out, testing the air. Fluffy rubs against Octavian's legs.

Octavian bites his lip, hard. And pets Denny.

Reyna sighs, and waves her hand. "That's all, go have breakfast and get ready for roll call in an hour."

Octavian stares at Jason, on the verge of a panic attack.

Jason walks over, noticing the distress. Medea buries her face into Jason's toga again.

Octavian meets Jason's eyes. "The lion. Why is it here."

"Fluffy followed me, guess he recognized you." He opens his hand, and Fluffy gets up and curls around him, and Medea peeks out of his left arm hole.

Octavian pulls Denny closer. "Okay."

Jason nods. "'kota wanted to have breakfast, see you later?" He leans over to kiss Octavian's cheek, leading the lion away. Medea's head pokes out the back of Jason's shirt, and flicks her tongue at Jason.

Octavian smiles, pulling Denny up as he stands. "Okay." He says, after Jason is long gone. Then he remembers the whole thing about trying to kill Jason, and hides his face in Denny's fur.

Jason's breakfast with Dakota and the rest of the 5th cohort was great. Fluffy stole Dakota's bacon, too, which was funny.

Octavian goes back to the apartment to eat ice cream and feel guilty, before heading for the Jupiter temple. He had some stuffed animals to sacrifice.

Jason spends the rest of the day being trailed by a lion. He drops Medea off at the 5th's barracks, but Fluffy refuses to stay anywhere Jason was not.

Octavian spends most of the day alone with the remains of stuffed animals and the occasional roman pestering him, but when he gets home that evening, he's tired anyways.

Jason yawns. Medea is still in the barracks, there's a War Game tomorrow, and 5th is making the building. He leads Fluffy into the house, and gives him a slab of meat. Denny paws at his leg, and Jason grabs a sardine from... somewhere, handing it over.

Octavian is curled up on the couch, his toga refashioned into a blanket and the belt of stuffed animals and his dagger tossed onto the coffee table.

Jason goes up to their room, hanging up his toga and walking back downstairs to make food for himself and Octavian. "Do you want anything?"

"Not to deal with idiots." Octavian groans, sitting up slowly.

"Isn't everyone an idiot to you?"

"Well," Octavian smiles. "You're not wrong. Idiot." He puts a loving emphasis on the last word.

Jason giggles, and makes himself a sandwich. "So, want any food?"

"Of course. Some ass kept me from lunch." Octavian shakes his head.

"Anything specific?" Jason asked, as he began gathering some ingredients for one of Octavian's favorites.

"No." Octavian yawns, and watches as Denny pads back over to him.

Jason hums, and makes Octavian a sandwich, bringing it out to him with a smile.

Octavian smiles, taking it. "Did you get what you wanted? What about you?"

Jason holds up his own sandwich, much more plain and simple, and offers the plate to his boyfriend.

Octavian takes it, and pats the couch. "Tell me about your day." About a year ago, he'd be all for complaining about his day until the next one came, but now he was tired of that. He wanted Jason to talk sometimes- he didn't know what Jason's favorite food was. It always seemed to revolve around Octavian, and that wasn't okay.

Jason shrugged. "Nothing much happened, though Fluffy hasn't left my side yet. Do you know how he got into the bathroom last night?" Jason tilted his head, curious.

Octavian blinks, then shakes his head. "He was in the bathroom? Whaaaaat." He laughs, fixing the lion with a look.

"He was just sitting there, and then he followed me to the kitchen so I gave him some meat, I think it was steak, maybe, and he hasn't left my side yet. D'ya think he likes me?" Jason's head tilts the other way, as the Lion walks over, plopping his head into Jason's lap.

Octavian stares at the lion. "Maybe."

Fluffy licks Jason's hand, when he reaches for the lion's mane. Jason coos, and Fluffy nuzzles his hands.

Octavian pulls Denny close to him, and lets her have some of his sandwich- only a small piece.

Fluffy keeps his position, as Jason eats. Jason gives him one of Denny's sardines, because it seems like the nice thing to do.

Octavian reaches over and tentatively puts his hand on Fluffy.

Fluffy leans into the touch, and Jason grins widely.

Octavian sighs. "I still don't like that snake."

"Medea is a sweetheart, I don't know why you don't like her." Jason's voice takes on an almost hurt tone, and Fluffy whines softly.

"She's a snake." Octavian says, turning and sitting so he's facing Jason. "I think I have a right to be terrified of a snake three times larger than I am."

"But she wouldn't hurt a, well okay she tends to eat flies, but she wouldn't hurt you."

"I have a right to be scared." Octavian says, tone flat.

Jason pouts, but looks down. "Okay."

Octavian frowns. "Don't be upset."

Jason glances at him. "But... she's my baby... I was there when she was a little teeny egg, and you don't like her, and..." Jason looks down again.

"It's not that I don't like her." Octavian insists. "I don't trust her."

Jason stares at him blankly. "She's... she's a snake. She doesn't have any motivations beyond her next meal."

"She is plotting against me and the state, but mostly me. Haven't you seen her? She has her eyes on the positions of the praetors, _and_ the augur. Snakes can do better jobs than we can."

"She has no eyes for those things, she has eyes for rats, and bugs, and sometimes fish. I have no idea where you're getting these ideas, Octavian, but really." Jason frowns.

Octavian frowns back at Jason. "She is evolving and she is going to take me down."

"...Octavian. There are probably plenty of people who want to and might be actively plotting against you, but my pet snake is not one of them."

"Jason. I have reason for my suspicions." Octavian sniffed.

"Uh-huh." Jason said slowly, clearly still skeptical.

"She ate Typhon." Octavian said.

"Typhon...?" Jason stares at him blankly.

"One of the earlier pets." Octavian clarifies. "He was brave, and strong, and large, and she ate him. In front of me."

"You only ever had Denny. You had Denny, and an infestation."

"Typhon was a palmetto bug. And your... Medea.... Ate him."

".......Octavian, she ate a bug. I understand you might have named it but it was just a bug. She doesn't even really like eating bugs, they give her indigestion."

"Then why did she do it, if not to spite me?" Octavian pointed at Jason.

"Because she's a big doofus who forgets it's bad for her to eat bugs, and comes to me to whine about it later."

Octavian frowns. "Huh."

Jason nods. "She's a big dumb cry baby who forgets things and forgets she weighs over 100 pounds and is longer than I am tall. I used to carry her around tucked into my shirt, and she thinks she can still ride me around."

Octavian wants to like the snake. He wants to like her and he wants Jason to not be sad, ever, but he also is acutely aware of how much the snake terrifies him.

Jason runs a hand through his hair. "I can't really force you to accept her presence but at least don't try and tell me my big dumb snake is plotting your murder, she can't even plot how to get around camp without someone to carry her."

Octavian nods.

Jason sighs. Then he turns to Fluffy. "You, on the other hand," He grabs two big fistfuls of Fluffy's mane, "are a very sweet baby who needs a bath. Who stinks like nothing I have ever encountered before? Is it you?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is split into three parts, they take place at different times. the first is at the beginning of Mark of Athena, and the second is an hour or two after that. The third happens during a later part of their quest, as more of Jason's memories come back. 
> 
> if you can't tell, i love writing the pets and jason interacting with the pets more than anything else.

Octavian spent the first lonely night in the middle of the bed. He'd thought he'd feel better, but he was wrong. All he did was cry and order more green tea and mint tea ice cream, upping the orders from once a week to every day. He missed Jason. The months wore on, and things became less and less okay. Where Jason was, he had no idea. All he knew was that Reyna was holding out hope, and he couldn't believe he'd wanted the best boyfriend he would ever find dead.

Then Percy Jackson showed up, and New Rome became synonymous with 'hell', 'tartarus', and 'joke'.

8 months and one loss of memories later, Jason returns to New Rome. He remembers Reyna, and his pet snake Medea and Fluffy the lion and Denny the Persian Cat, and he knows he had a boyfriend but he can't remember his name of face or anything about him. Piper cheated on him with Annabeth, like Reyna did with Gwen, and it hurt, but he was okay. He was wandering the streets, glancing at New Rome's... everything.

Octavian was not okay with the warship up high. He hadn't made it to the meeting, and now was angrily strolling the streets, until he bumped into something. Something tall and blonde and attractive. Something that was a son of Jupiter.

Jason blinks a couple times. There's a niggling in his mind, he should know this person. But there's nothing. No memories come to him, no name, nothing.  
>  
Octavian blinks, and the anger fades. His shoulders slump. He can't actually breathe right. "Jason."

Jason blinks at him, and frowns. ".......um... Do I... Do I know you? Err, dumb question. What's your name, exactly?"

Octavian blinks. Jason doesn't remember him? At first thought, it's awful- their relationship was amazing. But, then Octavian realizes. Jason doesn't remember him. Octavian decides to quit being upset about Jason being gone, and smiles instead. "You really don't remember my name?"

"I feel like I should know who you are, but I have no idea whatsoever."

"Well, all I have to say is this: Vanilla ice cream is your favorite and it's been too long since you were in New Rome." Octavian reaches up to mess with his hair.

Jason blinks, surprised. "Nobody believed me when I said I liked Vanilla best." He smiles. "I missed it, even if I don't remember everything just yet."

"I have a tub of it in my freezer. Well, you have a tub of it in my freezer. It has frost burn, and my green tea ice cream melted into it on accident, but it's still there." Octavian doesn't know why he's going on about ice cream and Jason. Maybe he went crazy.

Jason blinks at him. "I lived at your house?" His head tilts, but his smile is curious.

"You kept a lot of your things there." Octavian starts to blush. Jason hadn't technically lived there, he was supposed to share living quarters with Reyna. Just because he hadn't didn't mean anything.

"Oh, okay." Jason nodded.

Octavian started to say something, but then he saw something horrible. Fluffy, being ridden by Medea. He screams, jumping onto Jason and holding on tight, wrapping himself around Jason- he doesn't remember moving to get there, it happened too quickly.

Jason had glanced over to see Fluffy the lion being ridden by Medea, his beautiful baby girl, and he smiles. At least until the guy who still hasn't told him his name is suddenly clinging to him screaming in terror. Jason freezes, because the guy had been at least 5 feet away what the hell. Why was he even screaming, anyway?

"I *told* you she was evolving-" Octavian announced in a shrill voice, eyes wide in fear.

"What?" Jason asks, in equal parts in response to the words and the fact his ear has nearly lost the ability to hear.

Fluffy comes up to them, and Octavian buries his face in Jason's hair.

Jason awkwardly pats the guy's shoulder. "Um."

Octavian takes a deep breath, not dissimilar to a sob. The last months had been rough.

Jason pats him again. "Okay, you're seriously starting to freak me out here, dude."

"Your snake." Octavian mumbles. "Get it away from me."

Jason sighs. "Okay, let go and I'll lead her and Fluffy onto the Argo II, will that work?"

Octavian drops down immediately, knowing Jason will. "Yes."

Jason nods, and opens his hands. Fluffy goes to him, and he slowly walks the Lion and his cargo up to the warship. He notices something else just behind Fluffy's neck, but writes it off as his mane. Even if it's not the right color or texture.

Octavian watches him go, sighing in relief. He doesn't think about Denny.

Just as he leaves, Reyna and Annabeth walk up, talking. She glances at Octavian. "Something on your mind?"

"He's still hot." Octavian says.

Reyna and Annabeth glance in the direction he's looking, and Reyna sighs. "He does. I almost regret burning that bridge."

"I wish I hadn't lit the island on fire." Octavian mutters.

Reyna's eyebrow went up. "Huh?" Annabeth glanced between them, but not even two minutes after Jason had gotten the lion onto the Argo II, the ballistae started firing.

Octavian's eyes widened and he screamed in- in who knows what emotion. Fear? Fury? It was loud and no matter what it was, his hands moved into fists and he turned to Reyna.

Jason had noticed the fluffy Persian after getting the lion onto the boat. Oh well, he stole a cat. Oops. Right as everyone was setting up for dinner, he feels a paw on his leg and hears a pathetic meow. On instinct, he produces a sardine and feeds it to her. There is a sudden silence, and everyone is staring.

Leo is particularly interested. "Jason." He says slowly. "What the hell."

Jason blinked, and then thought about it, and realized he had no idea where the sardine came from. As he started to stand up and ponder, she pawed his leg again, and he immediately produced another one, feeding her.

Piper covered her hand with her mouth. Hazel's jaw dropped, and she squeezed Frank's hair. Leo practically jumped over the table to pick up the cat.  
Jason blinked. Annabeth pressed a hand to her chin, studying him. Jason glanced at the cat.

The cat clawed at Leo, loudly meowing.

Jason took her back, and shushed her. She continued to complain until he gave her another sardine.

Everyone stared at him. Leo swallowed, nursing his clawed hand. "Dude. Where did you get that cat."

"She's uh... Where did you even come from, Denny...? Why can't I remember?"

"Its name is Denny?" Piper pipes up, one eyebrow rising.

"Yeah, her owner would make up a whole bunch a different names Denny's 'short' for, but his story changed every time. Isn't that right, princess?" He coos at her, and she yawns in his face.

"Her owner? You mean she isn't yours?" Hazel asked.

Jason shook his head. "Nah, she lives in the same house as me, Medea and Fluffy, but she's clearly... whatever his name was's. Showed a clear preference, I'm just the food giver. Ain't that right?" Jason coos at her again, and she swats at his nose, so he puts her down. She walks across the room curls up to sleep in a patch of sunlight.

"Raise your hand if this is weird." Leo said. Everyone raised their hand.

Jason blinked at them. "What? What's weird?"

"You. That cat. Who don't you remember?"

"My uh... roommate? boyfriend? ...something."

Piper blinked, then nodded. It sounded right. "Didn't you mention a boyfriend?"

Jason shrugged. Frank piped up then. "Wasn't that Octavian?"

Percy, who hadn't spoken really, pales. "Seriously? That douche?"

Frank shrugged. "I remember Dakota mentioning it." Jason thought. "I don't recognize the name..."

"You're lucky." Percy said.

Annabeth hummed. "Was he the one you were talking to, before getting back onto the ship? The tall blond?" Jason shrugged.

Piper sipped her drink. "Blonde? Tall?" Leo blinked.

Jason raised his hand to about his mouth height. "The guy I was talking to was about this tall, messy straw-blond hair, teddy bears tied to his belt."

Hazel shuddered. "Yeah, him."

Jason thought. "Hmm..."

Jason ran a hand through his hair. He was starting to remember his boyfriend. It was definitely Octavian, and he was definitely the guy who'd nearly cost him the hearing in his left ear. The first year and a half of their relationship went really well, Jason had been so happy... And then it got weird. Maybe he should talk to Piper? But... but what if he's just worrying himself for nothing? But what if he's not? Jason buries his face in his hands.

Piper noticed Jason with his face in his hands, and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Jason? Something wrong? Need to talk?"

Jason sighed, and glanced up at her, worry clear in his expression. "What does it mean if your significant other repeatedly left dangerous animals for you to find later?"

Piper blinked in confusion. "Whoa, where's this coming from? That isn't a good thing. Is this about the boyfriend, Octavian?"

Jason drops his face back into his hands. "Cobras in the closet, piranhas in the bathtub at least twice, and I think that's how Fluffy got into the house. And there's the times he'd mix up the sugar and... something, I never figured out what... and... what is wrong with my love life?"

"Jason." Piper puts a hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure he wasn't trying to kill you?"

Jason sort of pauses, and then he slumps a little. "I... I don't know how I never noticed... I didn't wanna think..."

Piper hugs him. "It's okay."

Jason sniffles. "But... I liked him. He was a brat and he was snooty and sometimes he was annoying but I /liked/ him. What did I do wrong?"

"Jason, I don't know, but you've never done anything wrong to me. You're sweet, and you're understanding, and who knows why he did it." She pulls back a bit, to look into his eyes. "It's not your fault."

Jason wipes his face, and sniffles. "But..." He sighs. "Maybe this is just Venus's way of saying I'm not cut out for romance. It's never ended well."

"No, Jason, don't believe that. Everyone has someone right for them. I know this sounds stupid, but everyone has the right someone out there. Okay?"

"But... you and Reyna both cheated, and he... He tried to /kill/ me, Pipes. Murder me. If that's not a sign I don't know what is."

"It's a sign that you've had some good people be wrong for you, and... I don't know the story with him. But it's not your fault." She smiled. "Okay?"

Jason frowned. He clearly didn't believe her, but... he was willing to let her make him feel better, at least. Then Medea was brought into the room by Fluffy and his face lit up at the sight of them.

Piper wrapped her arms around Fluffy's big head, smiling. "See? You atleast got him out of everything."

Medea slithered off Fluffy and wrapped herself around Jason, who was smiling widely now, even if there were tears on his face. Medea licked at them.

"You'll be fine, Jason. Okay?" Piper hugged him again, carefully avoiding the side Medea was on.

Jason nods, and wipes his face, giggling when his snake bopped his hand with her head, clearly wanting to be petted.

Piper runs a hand down Medea's scales, then pets Fluffy. "Was that the only thing bothering you, or is there more we need to talk about?"

"...He looked really happy to see me earlier, and it's really confusing compared to what I... remember, now. Does that make sense?"

"What you're saying does, he doesn't." Piper replies.

Jason nods. "Okay." He sniffles, again, and the he buries his face in Fluffy's mane. "Ugh, I know who needs a bath. Who's stinkier than anything I've experienced before, mister? Is it you?" He pokes Fluffy in the side.

Piper laughs. "Have fun washing him, he'll be the first."

Jason sits up, gently plopping Medea on the bed before leading Fluffy toward his bathroom. "He likes water just fine, all I gotta do is find a bath tub big enough for him."

"I meant he'll be the first on the Argo II to get a bath in the stables. Or did you forget that fun thing Leo had?"

"He doesn't need the stables. I bathed him in my bathtub back in New Rome, he'll fit here just fine, too. C'mon, big guy... There we go."

Piper watches him leave, then pets Medea, who'd slipped down. "Hey pretty girl. You're nice, aren't you?" She says, and smiles at her.

Medea bops against Piper, tongue flicking out. Jason gets Fluffy into the tub, and gets the water running. His shirt is thrown out of the bathroom, and lands on the bed. Medea crawls inside it.

"Medea is too cute." Piper calls to Jason.

"I know, right? And Octavian was convinced she was plotting to take his position as Augur and kill him. I never understood that."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the thing with nico might be expanded upon at a later date  
> as of now im just posting cause this is big enough  
> also big threesome drama yay

Jason had gone with Nico to get the scepter and also to try and make up for... suggesting they not get him, it wasn't something he should have said, even if it had seemed perfectly logical to say at the time. It's as Cupid, Eros, is taunting Nico about... something, Jason's head is pounding too hard to put the pieces together right now, and it looks like the bastard might make Nico cry, that Jason snaps. He hates bullies, especially people who can't accept boundaries and constantly push on a person until they break, it's not acceptable and someone this old should know better.

Nico has tears in his eyes, threatening to fall almost as hard as everything else was falling around him. Well, not literally. Jason is there too, all golden and concussed and looking confused, but then he starts looking angry. When Nico sees that, there's a flash of fear because he's convinced the anger will be directed at him. Everything else is wrong, why not this too?

"Hey loverboy! If you're gonna pick a fight, why not pick someone who'll give you a run for your money?" He glares around the room, knowing that baiting a god probably was not his smartest move. But it was also not the dumbest thing he'd ever done. And then the bastard made a Grace Pun.

Nico covered his mouth with one hand, and Eros turns to Jason. Nico can't see his face anymore, but he figures it isn't something pretty. Well, it's pretty, but with an awful personality, so what's the point of pretty?

Jason snarled, and stepped so he was between Nico and Cu- Eros. There was no way in hell he was going to just let this continue, and his instincts were all screaming to attack.

"So you've decided you want me to grace your attention with my prescence." Eros says.

Jason growls, low and menacing, his hackles have been raised. His year(s) under Lupa seem to be showing, as well.

"You look anything but graceful. Are you sure this is going to work well for you?"

Jason snarls again, but forces himself to stand up straighter. He decides to just ignore the puns, and probably the god as well, and turn his attention to Nico. Is he okay?

Nico has sunk to the ground, knees up to his chest as he watches the two with wide eyes. Jason looks at him, and it takes every ounce of willpower for Nico not to flinch.

Jason kneels, and reaches out to give him a hand. "Hey. You okay?" He's worried, and any anger he might have had is gone, now. Forgotten.

Nico nods automatically.

Jason raises an eyebrow. "Ya sure?" He keeps his hand out, hoping to help Nico to his feet.

Nico takes the hand after a long moment of hesitation. "No. Yes. Is there really a right answer?"

Jason shrugged. "Dunno. What's bothering you? Maybe I can help."

"Him." Nico jerks a thumb at Eros, who is standing to the side, looking pretty as ever.

Jason snorts. "He's not that important. Don't let him bother you."

Eros narrows his eyes. "Not important? Who do you think is the patron of every relationship you've ever been in?"

"So you're the one who made both my girlfriends cheat on me?" He asked, turning to look over at Eros, eyebrow raised.

"No, I made them fall in love with others. What they did beyond that was simply the way things worked out."

"Wow. Thanks." Jason huffed, and turned away. He wasn't really in the mood for... thinking about it. It'd hurt the first time, having it mirrored might've been worse. "I guess I've been blaming the wrong god, oh well." He smiles at Nico. "Still, not that important."

Reyna had flown to the old lands, and was mourning the loss of Skipio. After that, she met with the seven, and Nico, greeting them as they climbed out of the House of Hades. A white shape she might have recognized streaked past her, scaling Percy Jackson and meowing pitifully at him.

Percy held the cat, leaning his head towards it. "Hey Denny." he cooed.

Reyna's eyebrow went up. "...Isn't that Octavian's cat?" She asked Jason, just to be sure. Jason nodded, yawning.

Percy froze. "Wait. Octavian?"

Reyna and Jason nod in affirmation. Jason yawns again, and stretches. Reyna tilts her head. "Didn't you know?"

"No one told me." Percy looked pointedly at Hazel, Frank, and Jason.

Jason shrugged. "You never asked." Frank whistled innocently.

Percy cuddled Denny more. "It's essential information. I assumed she was yours."

"Mine? No. I just feed, bathe, provide water, and walkies. Octavian cuddled her and carried her around sometimes."

"You sound like her owner." Percy repeated.

"I didn't find her or name her, I just do everything else." Jason yawns again.

Percy stares at Jason. "Alright."

Jason turns and wanders toward the ship. "You're the first person since Octavian who she's bonded to, so that'll be interesting."

Percy frowned at the cat. "How can something so cute have such bad judgement?"

Jason laughed. "I think one or both of them might've been drunk when they met. Would explain the name, wouldn't it?"

"Kinda reminds me of the restaurant." Piper adds. Percy nodded.

Jason nods. "'xactly."

Percy wasn't sure what else to say but to pet Denny. He'd never had a pet before.

Jason manages to climb most of the way onto the boat before being bowled over by an overenthusiastic Fluffy.

Percy sets Denny down, and goes to take a shower, then sleep. He doesn't look at Annabeth, or Jason, or anyone else, because he needs to sleep at least a few hours.

Jason ends up in his room, thinking about things. His min keeps straying to Piper, Reyna, and Octavian. And how while he's not hurt by Piper or Reyna's actions anymore, he hasn't gotten over it, either. He has more issues with Octavian, but he holds off thinking those things by thinking about Piper and Reyna. Who had been eyeing each other and Annabeth like they planned to do horrible things to each other and he was afraid.

Percy finds he can't sleep. It's horrible, it hurts, but he can't. He's too exhausted for sleep, somehow. So, he goes to Jason's room. He knocks on the door, Denny meowing loudly as she moved between his ankles.

Medea opens the door, from her spot on the chair next to it. Jason is on his back, staring at the ceiling.

Percy is somehow surprised by Medea's skills, but not unhappy with them. He reaches down to pet her head. "Can I come in? I don't smell like death anymore." He says the last part as a joke.

Jason rolls so there's room on the bed, and pats it. "You didn't smell like death, you just looked like it. How're you feeling?"

Percy goes to lay down gratefully. "Like I was just in Tartarus."

Jason sighs. "Yeah, I bet. Lost of stuff happened, too, huh?"

"More than I can even remember. Did you know there are spirits that take every last-breath curse people you killed uttered, and when you attack them, they use one on you?"

"Woah, really? That's gotta hurt like hell." Jason pauses, and shakes his head. "Sorry. My problems seem pretty lackluster compared to what you've just gone through."

"Most hurt, but some were annoying- someone cursed me with an eye twitch. What happened to you here?" Percy knows his own problems were pretty huge, but that didn't mean Jason's weren't important too.

Jason rolled so he was facing the ceiling. "I started to remember Octavian. I talked to Piper about it and we think he might've been trying to kill me."

"He's done that sort of thing before Gwen?" Percy asks.

Jason ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know what happened with Gwen, but I have a feeling he hadn't dated her for a year and a half before doing weird and dangerous things that could've and probably should've killed her. Right?" He glances over, a little worried. "Because if he did that too then that's twice now someone's cheated on me with Gwen and it wasn't very fun the first time."

"Who cheated on you with Gwen, why did you date Octavian, and he just sort of stabbed her and killed her."

"Reyna, Reyna, and wow."

"She's alive right now, and out of the military. Retired. Honestly, I don't blame her." Percy turned to look at Jason. "And Reyna got you with him?"

"I think her plan was for us to fuck and get the UST out of our system, but then we ended up working together really well. I... I liked him, I might still like him. And... Gods..."

"I don't want to say that's okay, and I bet you don't want to hear it. He tried to kill you? Screw him." Percy closed his eyes. "He doesn't deserve you."

Jason drapes his arm over his face. "I don't want to like him but... I can't..." He sighs. "I have the worst luck in romance."

"I've liked about two girls, one is an eternal virgin and the other cheated on me, with one of your exes. Our love lives can be bad together."

"Both of my girlfriends cheated on me with other girls and my one boyfriend tried to kill me multiple times before I was finally kidnapped by Juno. But okay."

"So us switching was a good thing? Possibly?" Percy proposes.

"Well, if we hadn't I might be dead, so... Yeah, I guess."

"M glad you're not dead." Percy hates to admit it, but he's annoyingly close to falling asleep.

Jason hums, and reaches for Medea, who immediately slithers over and bundles herself up in Jason's arms.

Percy moves so he's on his stomach, head in his arms, and sighs. "Sorry, 'm tired."

"S'okay, don't blame you." Jason mumbles back, half asleep himself.

"Jason?" Percy yawns.

"Mmm?"

"What happens next?"

Jason shrugs. "Dunno."

"Whaddya wanna do next?"

Medea chooses that moment to investigate Percy, climbing over Jason to sniff at the other boy.

Percy smiled at her sleepily.

Medea boops his nose, flicking her tongue. Jason giggles.

Percy smiled back at her. "Who's a pretty girl?"

Medea points at Jason with her tail.

Percy giggles. "Who's a prettier girl?"

Medea thinks a moment, before pointing at Percy, as if asking if he's prettier.

"I am prettier than Jason, thank you. And who's the prettiest girl?"

She tilts her head, and then glances at Fluffy, who's dozing in the corner.

"No, you're the prettiest girl." Percy boops her nose.

Medea looks affronted, and Jason pets her. "Shh, he didn't mean it, you're the fierce battle-snake who rides Fluffy into battle"

"Fierce battle snakes can be pretty too." Percy frowned.

"Yeah, but Medea doesn't wanna be, so she's not."

"Okay, then Medea is a fierce battle snake."

Jason nods, and Medea cuddles up between them content.

Percy throws a leg over Jason and Medea.

Jason blinks, and smiles at Percy. "Hi."

"Hey." Percy smiles back slowly.

"Come by often?" Jason grins.

"Oh, only when I feel up to it." Percy smiles back, this time more wolfishly.

Jason giggles.

Percy laughs with him, thinking about how good it feels to laugh.

Jason smiles, and just lets himself bask in the moment. It's been a long time since he laughed, and... And it feels good to.

Percy reaches forwards and touches Jason's hair.

Jason closes his eyes, leaning into the touch a little. He just wanted to... Relax.

Percy smiles and lets his hand rest in the hair. It's short, but getting longer. And it was soft.

Jason hums, leaning into him a little more. He liked having his hair petted, sadly it didn't happen very often.

Getting the message, Percy began to move his hand. Softly stroking. He missed being close to people and feeling safe- Tartarus was something different. Other. Something he needed to forget.

Jason makes a contented noise, and Medea crawls from between them, to let Jason get closer. Jason didn't know what Tatrarus was like, but he could guess.

Percy moves forwards, farther from the edge, until he and Jason are pressed together. "Hey."

"Hi..." Jason smiles, eyes opening. He smiles a little self consciously. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..." He couldn't figure out the words for it, but.

"S okay." Percy shakes his head. "Fine."

Jason nodded. "Okay."

Percy closes his eyes. He's almost asleep. He's clean, he's safe, he's warm and not about to be viciously murdered. "Why does it always feel like something's about to go wrong?"   
He mumbles.

"Cause that's what always happens." Jason answers softly. "I don't think you have to worry about being murdered, though. 5th cohort trained Medea and Fluffy to fight and I'm sure they can tell friend from foe."

"I can't tell friend from foe." Percy muttered.

Jason nodded. "Me either."

"I don't want to have to judge." Percy adds.

"Yeah. It'd be nice if you could just... trust people not to screw you over."

"I tried that once." Percy closed his eyes. "Titan war II."

"Kinda the same? But also not. Plus there was Octavian, and Reyna, and Piper." Jason sighed. "What do I do to deserve that, anyway?"

"Maybe you were too pretty. Too good in bed. Too nice. Octavian... Can't imagine him having anything nice and not screwing it up. You got out lucky."

Jason looks at him, in confusion. "How does... being too nice or, the other stuff... how...?" Jason is confused.

"People get tired of sweet and nice." Percy shrugs. "They want something that bites back. Nothing against you, you're perfect and all, but..." He shrugs.

Jason blinks. The he sighs. "So I was right anyway. Huh."

"What do you mean?" Percy asks, brows furrowing.

"When I was talking to Piper, I told her that my whole love life was just one big sign saying I'm not cut out for romance. It hasn't worked out. I called it."

"You're cut out for romance." Percy says. "You are the definition of romance and romantic. What else do you remember?"

"I remember walking in on Reyna and Gwen, but nothing else is new."

"No, about Octavian. Tell me about your side of him."

"He was a snotty little brat, but... He loves Denny, and he's deathly afraid of Medea, which is stupid because she would never do anything that would make me yell at her, and sometimes we'd sit and talk and even if it usually ended up with him complaining about his day while I listened, I liked hearing him talk so it was okay." Jason sighs, a little wistful. "I was really happy."

"Other than him being a bitchy homicidal maniac, was there any sign he wasn't happy? Or something along those lines?"

"No. Just... one day there were piranhas in the bath tub and my coffee tasted funny, and sometimes he'd look sad so I'd try and cheer him up, and..." Jason sighs.

Percy goes back to petting his hair. "Shh, you're okay. Jason, you're okay."

Jason wipes his face. "I don't know what I did wrong..."

"Maybe we can find out. Maybe we don't need to know. Whatever suits you better, Jason."

"I don't know..." Jason sighs. "I want to know, but I'm scared to... to find out. Does that make sense?"

"Totally. You need to know, but you also know you'll also have that 'but what if I didn't do that' thought. I get it."

Jason nods. "I'm terrified that if I... If I talk to him again I'll just..."

"Go back?"

Jason nods.

"Are you scared of him?"

"I could kill him if I have to. But... He has a way with words, Percy. If you give him the chance then he'll have you believing everything out of his mouth without a second thought. If anyone I know has a silver tongue, it's Octavian." Jason sighs. "And even though I know that, I still want to know why."

"Does it only happen when you're alone with him?"

"You've got to have seen him work the Senate, Perce. He does it whenever he wants something."

Percy remembered now. "I don't know how to help. He isn't a monster."

Jason laughs. "Yeah. He's worse." He bit his lip. "But I still... Ugh. All this is doing is making me feel worse."

Percy closes his eyes. "Sorry. Want to get to sleep, then?"

Jason nods. "It's fine, I'm just. How do you deal with feelings?" He turns so he can cuddle Medea again. "I've never been good at feelings."

"Usually? I do something about it, or I avoid it. It depends, I guess."

Jason cuddled Medea, who poked her head over his shoulder to look at Percy. "I kinda think I always just... ran from them."

"What about when you were tired of running?" Percy asks.

"I hadn't gotten to that point yet. And then I was a clean slate and I suddenly got 15 years worth of baggage all at once, it feels like, and... Gods I don't know what I'm doing."

"Do you ever want to go back to the clean slate?" Percy asks. He knows what Jason means, he remembers a few times he wishes he could have not remembered anything, simply made a life in New Rome. Hell, he even wishes he'd been born roman, it'd be simpler. On the other hand though, he'd have missed out on so much, so many friends- he wouldn't give that up for the world.

Jason hugged Medea tighter for a second. "Sometimes. But then I think about Reyna and Pipes and Medea, Fluffy, Leo... those first couple years with Octavian... I can't give it up, but I don't think I can just... keep going like this, either. You know? I've thought about picking a camp to stay at, but... I won't fit, I've lost my place. Maybe I should do some soul searching once this is all over."

"Mind if I come along?" Percy asks. "I think I have the same problem."

Jason blinks, surprised. "...Sure. If you want to."

"I probably have something better to do, but I'd rather try it." Percy shrugs.

Jason nods. "Cross-country road trip. I've always wanted to go on one without a deadline, ya know?"

Percy nodded. "All of mine have been quests with deadly deadlines." he looks at Jason, studying his face.

Jason nods, smiling. "Same."

Percy nods, and finds himself leaning forwards. He's too tired to think straight.

Jason blinks, and tilts his head. What's Percy doing?

Percy presses his lips against Jason's, slowly. Then he just kinda goes for it and sucks on Jason's bottom lip. Like he said, he's tired.

Jason's eyes start to close, until his mind goes to Nico and he freezes, hands Percy Medea, and bolts out of the room.

Percy is left in Jason's bed with Jason's snake. So he does the rational thing, mutters something that would get him a mouth of soap at school, and goes to sleep.

Nico was in the dining area, eating a plate of mac'n'cheese. The kind that's too cheesy and has shells instead of macaroni, and that you get yelled at if you binge eat. The only difference in his case being he wouldn't get yelled at, because only piper and Leo were awake, and they were up top.

Jason skids into the room, sits down next to Nico. He's been apologizing for about three minutes now and the words are starting to run together.

Nico stares at him blankly, too tired and fixated on the noodles to focus. Then he catches a few words- Percy, kiss, and accident. So he sets his fork down, and fixes Jason with a look. Yeah, that look. "What?"

Jason takes a deep breath and starts from the beginning. "I was in m' room and Percy want'd ta talk and then we were talking and we were tired 'nd then he just kissed me suddenly and I panicked I'm sorry I'm so so so sososo sorry"

"I thought he was straight?" Nico mumbles. "Nevermind, how did you do it? I mean, how did you get him to do it?"

"I don't know, we were talking about Octavian and then I was moping about not fitting in either of the camps and planning a road trip 'nd then I cuddled Medea and then he just. Leaned over and kissed me! I wasn't paying attention and If I'd seen it coming I would've stopped him I'm sorry"

Nico doesn't see how any of that is attractive. Unless it isn't what was done, but Jason himself? "Isn't Percy straight? Aren't you straight?" Nico asks.

Jason pauses. "I don't think I was ever straight, I thought we told you about my dating Octavian? Uh. I have no idea about Percy but no boy with an ass that perfect could possibly be 100% straight."

Nico has to agree and eat more mac'n'cheese. "What do you want me to do then, if he's into you?"

"I think it was a spur of the moment thing. And he said some things so I'm probably not his type anyway." Jason flaps a hand.

"Said things like what? What is his type?" Nico asks.

"We didn't talk about types specifically, but I'm apparently boring." Jason sighed. "Figures."

"You aren't boring." Nico protests.

Jason glances up, and tilts his head. "What makes you say that?"

"You." Nico looks around. "You're the son of Zeus, a part of this quest, have a shitty romantic history, and you have cool pets. You used to have a cool coin weapon, and you're nice and you're the leader of the Romans and Hera actually likes you." Nico says, hands thrown up. "Lots of stuff makes you interesting, okay?"

Jason blinks. "While most of that is true, leading Romans is a thing of the past, sadly, my Romantic history paints a picture of someone who drove both of his girlfriends to cheat and his boyfriend to plot his murder. I have a feeling if I wasn't so... what were the things Percy said? Nice, polite, whatever, at least one of those things wouldn't have happened. So, I'm boring."

"You aren't boring." Nico repeats. "Boring people can't tell jokes."

Jason laughs. "I don't know any good ones."

"Bad jokes are better anyways." Nico waves his hand dismissively. "Boring people don't have cool names like _Jason Grace_."

"The number of people who think making puns on my name have ruined what little cool points it had."

"Untrue." Nico counters. "Also you were raised by a wolf goddess, that is cooler than cool- you're like Romulus 2.0. He was the good one, right?"

"It's too late for me to be answering that, but everyone at Camp Jupiter spent time under Lupa's paw it's nothing special."

"You were four, that automatically makes you cooler." Nico smiles, and it doesn't come out too badly. "You're determined to not be cool, but you are Jason."

Jason huffs. "I was three and a half, excuse you."

"Whatever." Nico rolls his eyes. "You were tiny and cool."

Jason crosses his arms and huffs. "Fine, I'll concede your point for now. And I'm still sorry."

Nico nods. "You're welcome, I guess. It doesn't matter anyways, I can't act on anything."

Jason tilts his head. "Why not?"

"Because he's Percy Jackson. Even if he were queer, he'd go for someone like you, not me."

"Nico. Percy doesn't judge on appearance, he's above that and you should know it. I'm not gonna tell you to go confess because I can't force you, but you are just as attractive, if not more so, than I am. And you're ten times as funny."

"I'm the creepy death kid, you're sunshine and the pastel goth rain aesthetic." Nico says. "He kissed you, hates me. It's obvious."

"He does not hate you. If he hated you he would not have argued so heatedly in your favor when we were deciding on rescuing you from the twins. He thinks of you as a brother, an equal. It wouldn't take much to tip that into something more but you're too afraid to try."

"Can you blame me?" Nico says. "It's Percy."

"Percy isn't some super human who would smite you if you make an unwanted advance. Honestly he'd probably take you on a date and let you down gently. Honestly Nico."

Nico doesn't say anything for a few minutes, returning to his now-cold macaroni and cheese. He pushes it away, and turns to Jason. "Really?"

"If he wasn't interested in you and couldn't see you as anything as a brother? Yeah. Am I 100% certain that's how he sees you? No. Percy goes with the flow, and stuff. Rolls with the punches. Don't assume things. it just makes an ass out of you and me."

Nico puts his arms on the table and puts his chin on top of them. "Why would it make an ass out of you?"

"That's how the phrase goes and I'm sure there would be a way." Jason yawns, just as he was about to say something, and his train of thought is lost.

"Aren't you going to go sleep?" Nico asks. "You need it."

Jason thinks a moment, before falling onto the table and snoring softly.

Nico smiles softly and closes his eyes too. He doesn't know if he'll fall asleep too, but he might as well try.

Fluffy wanders out from Jason's room, leaving Medea and Percy in the bed, to go find his person. Jason is asleep on the eating slab, and Fluffy climbs up to cuddle him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> octavian fucks up more and a plan for a foursome is made

Okay, so maybe (just maybe) Octavian was aware that drugging someone's hot chocolate with something that would calm them isn't a very good start to a healthier relationship. However, in his defense, he didn't want Jason to get mad and walk away, or get up and walk away, or leave in the middle of the story. He just needed him to stay still for a good half hour, forty five minutes, while Octavian explained what he did, why he did it, and how it was NOT, in any way, Jason's fault (except it kind of was).

Jason had been willing to hear Octavian out, until he started to feel drowsy, light-headed, and a little nauseous. That definitely wasn't normal hot chocolate, an Jason left before he could register much of what Octavian was trying to say, because he needed to find Reyna, stat.  
When he found her, she had a topless, braless Piper making out with a fully-clothed Annabeth on her lap. Reyna was also topless, though her bra was on. Jason wheezed, and felt himself start to fall over. Hello darkness.

Piper had been having a really great time on top of Reyna and making out with Annabeth, until Jason burst in and passed out. She scrambled to grab some semblance of clothing (She ended up with one of Reyna's capes put on wrong), before she went to Jason and looked back at Reyna and Annabeth. "What do we do?"  
Ten minutes later, Octavian shows up late with a cup of hot chocolate. He had waited as long as he could before he went to Reyna's, beccause Reyna was the one Jason talked to. She was also the one Octavian should talk to.

Annabeth was the first over, being the most clothed. She checked his pulse, and found it slightly lowered than normal, which really wasn't surprising. She raised an eyebrow at Octavian, when he entered.   
Reyna sighed and crossed her arms. "Octavian? What happened?" She knew this was his fault. There were very few alternatives.

"I wanted to talk to Jason and explain everything that happened, but I was worried he'd run off so I put a minor relaxing drug in his hot chocolate. But it wasn't anything that would make him pass out." Octavian looked back up at the girls. "I'm going to get beaten up, aren't I?"

Reyna sighed, and rubbed her temple. Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Perhaps you should just explain it without trying to drug him, his reaction was pretty rational, all things considered. He might have had an averse affect to the drug, too. Have you ever thought to ask him if he has allergies?" Annabeth had her hands on her hips, and glared a little at the Augur. Jason groaned and sat up.

"It isn't the first time he's had it though, it's a standard drug." Octavian protests. "And I wasn't exactly thinking rationally, I was nervous. Still am." 

Jason glances up at Octavian, frowning. "I'd been willing to listen 'til I registered I was drugged, you know." Annabeth and Reyna both sighed, and Reyna glanced a Piper as if to say 'this is what I have to deal with every day.'

Piper kind of wanted to laugh at how awful Octavian was at this, but she also wanted to punch him.  
"I wasn't under the impression you'd listen to anything I had to say. I honestly wasn't expecting you to agree to even come have hot chocolate with me." Octavian admits, rubbing his arm. He looks mildly endearing and nervous, if you aren't looking at the context.

Jason sighs. Loudly. "Of course I'd listen, I want to understand why. Though I'm seriously regretting this decision, because if I hadn't come I wouldn't have had to see them... doing... things." He motions vaguely at the girls, mostly Reyna, because even if he loved her and dated her she was still a childhood friend and he didn't want to see her boobs.

Piper bit her lip and looked back at Annabeth and Reyna. She didn't regret their interaction, but she didn't want Jason to have seen it either- both her and Reyna had cheated on him, the only thing that would make this moment worse would be if Percy burst in. "I have an idea. Octavian tells everyone his motives behind trying to kill you, I put on a shirt, and Reyna makes us some safe, non drugged drinks. How does that sound?" She claps her hands together and looks around the room.

Reyna and Annabeth nod, Reyna going and grabbing a couple shirts, and Piper's bra from... somewhere. Jason nods slowly as well.

Octavian goes to sit down on the couch in the living room, everyone else following. Piper keeps the cape/toga on beause she's cold, even with the blanket. Reyna makes a nice big pot of coffee, and they all pick chairs.   
"Do I speak now?" Octavian asks.

"Please do" Jason answers, sipping his coffee, Reyna remembered how he liked it. Sweet.

"So, my issues all started about a year into the relationship." Octavian starts, sitting back in his seat.

Jason nods. "What were your issues? Why didn't you talk about them?" These were things he wanted to know.

"I didn't talk about them or realize them because the sex was fantastic." Octavian says simply.

Reyna snorts, and Jason's face flushes.

"Anyways," Octavian continues. "My problem was that you don't talk about yourself. I can't figure anything out, and it's frustrating."

Jason blinks. And then he frowns. "You could have told me? I'm not 100% clear on what it is that means, but communication is usually required in order to solve problems."

"I tried. I kept trying a bunch of different things to figure it out- remember the seven months with all the different foods, colors, and the like? I brought in three peacocks one day? I couldn't figure out what you liked."

Jason shrugged. "I don't have many preferences"

"That helps me in no ways whatsoever." Octavian replies.

Jason smiles apologetically. "I'm sorry? I just... I take what I get and I'm usually pretty happy with it."

Octavian crosses his arms. "What's your favorite color. Your favorite food."

"I don't have a favorite color. Food, uh... aside from icecream... Uh..."

Octavan waits. He knows Jason's ice cream preference, he still had a giant, half-eaten, freezer burnt tub of it.

Jason thought for a few minutes before shrugging finally. "Nothing comes to mind."

"Vanilla ice cream. And nothing else? Not even the calamari I make?" He doesnt mention its the only thing he knows how to make.

Jason blink. "Well, I like it, but, favorites usually means you... favor it over something else. I don't really...do that."

"That's my problem. This is my problem." He turns to the girls. "That," he gestures at Jason. "Is my problem."

Reyna sighs. She couldn't really argue with Octavian, Jason was... difficult, in ways most people weren't.

Octavian groans. "Reyna, you have wine, yes?"

Reyna nods, and goes to retrieve it. Jason blinks at them, head tilted. Like a lost puppy.

"You are a genuinely good person, Jason." Octavian says, since he needs elaboration.

Jason nods slowly. He's kinda aware of that.

"And that's part of the problem. The rest of it is that I am not a good person." He accepts the glass of red wine when Reyna comes back.

Reyna takes a swig of her own, and sighs. Jason frowns. "Being 'good' is relative. Anyone can be good. You have to work at it, some of us more than others."

"Trust me, I am not a good person." His mind flashes back to the journals, and he shakes his head.

Jason sighs. "Not with that attitude you're not."

"I'm no..." He pauses, trying to remember famous figures, and goes for family members he remembers. "No Elle, no Marielle, no Ariel and no Annabelle." He pauses. "My role models all have "el" in their name. Anyways, I'm none of them. You surpass them, take all the virtues and none of the sins."

Jason frowns. "I have no idea who they are, but you're only as good as you let yourself be, Octavian. Nobody is perfect."

Octavian frowned. "You mean you've never read any of the leather bound journals in the bookshelf in the walk in closet? I was hoping you would at least snoop, I love talking about them."

"I assumed they were private? Why would I snoop?"

"They were leather bound books that were hidden behind magic in a closet. Why wouldn't you snoop? If they were private you would be unaware they existed, or at least unable to find them."

Jason frowned. "Snooping is rude." Reyna facepalms.

"It would have given us more to talk about." Octavian huffed. "Fine. After this is over though, you need to read them. Start with the ones on the top shelf to the left, but if you need the translations, those are in composition books next to them. Most of it is in other languages. But don't rip anything, fold anything, or lose the books, or I may revert." He smiles, and hopes its clear how much effort he put into the notebooks.

Jason nods slowly. "Okay."

Octavian sits back, sipping his wine. "What else do we need to talk about?"

Reyna ran a hand through her hair. "If one of you has trust issues now, it would be good idea to set up boundaries before trying to move forward." It's obvious who she's talking to.

Octavian nods, and looks at Jason. He can tell there are probably trust issues on his side.

Jason thought a minute. "You're not allowed in the kitchen alone anymore." He says simply. He really doesn't think anything else needs to be addressed, at this point.

"I can agree to this. Am I allowed to keep my wine out of the kitchen, then?"

"I don't drink it, so sure."

Octavian sighed in relief. "Do you drink any of my alcohol? This is not a trick question, I'm hoping you say yes."

"No. I'm not really a fan of alcohol."

Octavian frowned. "Oh."

Jason shrugged a little. "A little once in a while is fine, but in general I avoid it. From what I remember of my mother..."

Octavian blinked, then nodded. "Okay, I understand now."

Jason nodded, smiling. "Admittedly it's not much, but... I'd rather not risk it, you know?"

Octavian nods again.

Jason nods as well, and glances down. And then he thinks. "Wait... did I ever mention my sister to you?"

"You have a sister?" Octavian asks.

"Thalia Grace, captain of the Hunters of Artemis" Jason beams.

Octavian blinks, then wrinkles his nose. "Them?"

"She could break you in half, don't be rude."

"Excuse me for not being a fan of a band of adolescent immortal girls whose entire code centers around virginity, the hunt, and a very intentional lack of boys." He rolls his eyes. "I fear them being able to rip me in half."

"They serve the goddess of the hunt and think almost every boy is beneath them. I'm not because Thalia is my big sister though"

Octavian chooses not to say anything.

Jason nods. "I'm not sure how she'd feel about you, but it'd be nice if you could meet some day."

Octavian sips his wine. "Sounds good."  
Piper reached for Annabeth's hand. "Soooo, Jason, how do you feel about Percy and Nico? Because that happened."

Jason sputtered, and both Reyna and Annabeth snapped to attention.

Octavian blinked. "What?"  
Piper nodded. "Yes, but. I'm not saying it, not officially."

Jason coughed. "Nothing happened, Piper, shut up."

"A lot happened, Jason start talking." Piper retorted.

Jason shook his head, clamping his mouth shut. He knew better than to say 'you cant make me' but his body language implied it.

Octavian stretched his legs out over Jason's legs. "Please?"

Jason's resolve started to crumble, but he didn't say anything just yet. You have to be strong, Grace. Do it for mother.

"Please? I want to know." Octavian scoots down, his legs arching over Jason's, then pouts at him. "I'll owe you something. Well, another something."

Jason whined. He didn't want to think about it.

"Please? It'll only help the situation. Only help you."

Jason sighed. "I don't know what happened. But..."

Octavian nods as if to say 'go on'.

"Percy made out with me and I might be developing feelings for Nico but I'm not sure and it's not like I'm going to act on them anyway."

Piper put a hand over her mouth. Octavian tried not to look hurt. "Alright."

Jason presses his forehead to Octavian's. "He needs a friend more than he needs anything else, and I still like you."

Octavian smiles and tilts his head to press a kiss to Jason's chin. "Liking me is still a bad idea and I'm still happy you keep doing it."

Jason shrugs. "I don't know why but I'm glad I keep doing it too."

Piper smiles. "This is adorable, but we still need to talk about Percy and Nico, and what you're gonna do in regards to them."

"I'm not going to do anything. Didn't you hear what I just said, Pipes?" Jason frowns at her, blushing a little. It's not like he's told anyone but Piper about his feelings before today.

"How about I propose an idea?" She let her eyebrows rise.

Jason frowned at her.

"Polyamory." She grinned. Octavian choked.

Jason's ears tinged pink, and he spluttered.

Piper rolled her eyes. "It's rational. Completely rational. No one gets hurt."

Jason coughed. "Wh-what makes you think that would work? Or that Percy or Nico would agree?"

Piper looked to Annabeth. "You think he'd be able to go for it?"

Annabeth thought a moment. "Percy might, though I don't particularly think this would be a good idea. Nico would take some convincing."

"Well, he's really the only one who would require convincing or, if he's too uncomfortable, apologies and chocolate."

Annabeth nods. "I don't see why you think this is a good idea." Her protectiveness over Percy is showing.

"Because everyone likes Jason and Jason likes everyone and what's the best thing to do when everyone likes everyone? All being together. It works for us." She looks pointedly at Reyna.

Reyna nodded. She had no complaints. Annabeth huffed, but didn't argue. Jason wasn't sure how this had happened, and now he was wondering how his life had come to this point.

Octavian looked up at Jason. "Hey. Not a bad idea."

Jason nodded a little. He was still wondering.

"You alright?" Octavian asks.

Jason nods again, and smiles. "Yeah. Just... thinking."

Octavian nods again. He can't help but think about the months were he planned to kill Jason, and his eyes close in the face of the guilt he feels. "Sorry."

Jason hugs him. "I'm not going to say it's okay, but it's over, and I forgive you."

Octavian shifts so he can wrap his own arms around Jason, eyes shut tightly. "It isn't okay." He took a deep breath. "Thanks."

Jason nods.

"Do you still fit the same size clothing?" Octavian asks. "I still have all of yours."

Jason nods. "Far as I know." He smiles. "I'm glad."

"And your ice cream. And that bad painting you brought in."

"That painting is a piece of art. Don't be rude."

"It is all green. Your critique of it is that you think it could have worked with less green."

"It's still a piece of art. Don't be rude." Jason huffs, in just the way he does when he knows he's wrong but won't admit it.

"It's very nice. I would've taken it down otherwise. It's the association of it and my failure to learn your favorite color that made it less enjoyable."

"I don't have a favorite color. We went over that"

"It was a game that I lost and you cheated in." Octavian shakes his head.

"I'm sorry." Jason pouts a little. Reyna glances at Piper. "Are we going to bring the other two up to speed anytime soon?" She stage whispered.

Piper nodded. "I texted them while they were cute together. " She stage whispered back.  
Octavian pretended not to hear her and leaned forwards to lick his way into those pouty lips, then suck on Jason's bottom lip.

Jason sputters, because the girls are rIGHT THERE WHAT THE HELL OCTAVIAN.

Octavian scoots closer, kissing Jason harder. He doesn't care if the girls watch. They can watch all they want. He's a little into that.

Jason's face burns red, and he pulls away a little. He's not sure he's ready, and his ex-girlfriends and /Annabeth/ are watching.  
Annabeth makes popcorn.

Octavian pulls hack, leaning into the couch and coddling his drink.

Jason sighs a little, and hides his face in his hands. Reyna tops off Octavian's glass.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the start of a glorious foursome is brewing  
> now if only they could all get along.

Octavian nods gratefully and sips the glass.

Reyna nods, and tops off her own, depositing the bottle on the table. Jason tries to get his breathing, and his blush, under control.

Piper grabs the bottle and pours herself a small glass, and another for Annabeth. Whether or not she drinks it, Piper doesn't care. "Now, should Percy and Nico be here for this part? It isn't too late, is it, Reyna?"

Reyna shrugs. "Depends. I do not think Nico is in New Rome, though if he is it would still be difficult to find him."

"We can iris message him?" Piper proposes.

Reyna shrugs. "Maybe."  
Annabeth thinks. "If he's in the Underworld, like he tends to be, can he even get Iris Messages? We don't really contact him that way very often."

"Maybe Morpheus would be better?" Piper asks. Octavian, next to Jason, glances at him.

"That'd only work if he's sleeping." Annabeth argues. "And it's unlikely Morpheus would help, anyway. Maybe tie a note to Mrs. O'Leary? I think I could summon her and send her to him."

"Maybe we could make sure he's not away from camp first?" Octavian proposes. "I saw him earlier, when I was buying hot chocolate in the forum."

"Check with Hazel?" Annabeth suggests, glancing at Reyna. Reyna nods. "He does spend more time with her than anyone else, here."

Piper hums. "Can we use IMing?" She asks, unsure of how exactly the roman's got massages to each other.

Reyna snorts. "Hazel is in the camp. She's in the 5th's barracks. That would be a waste of a message. We walk."

Octavian raised his hand. "May I stay here? I don't mind if one of you three chaperone, but I do not like walking the camp at night."

Reyna nods. She glances at Piper and Annabeth. "Would either of you like to stay?"  
Annabeth sits down on the couch. Decision made.Piper stands. "So Reyna and I go to Hazel, bring back Percy and maybe Nico? Okay."

Reyna nods. Annabeth crosses her arms, and Jason sits up, finally.

Octavian nurses the wine, waiting for Reyna and Piper to leave before he talks to Jason more. He doesn't know the Greek sitting on the other couch very well (or much at all), but that makes it easier, somehow. Finally, it's just the three of them in the room. "Jason?" He asks.

Jason glances at Octavian, hands steeped in front of his mouth. "Mm?"

"When you..." He starts, then shakes his head. "Never mind."

Jason's head tilts to the side, and he turns toward Octavian a little more. "Yes?"

"No, it's fine." Octavian tipped his head, and the glass back.

Jason frowns. "Is something wrong?"

"I was wondering something, but I realized I didn't want to know."

Jason nods slowly. "Alright."

Octavian is surprised that was that easy. "Okay."

Jason smiles at him a little.

Octavian smiles back, then glances at Annabeth. He still doesn't know her, and can't read her well enough to start a conversation.

Annabeth has pulled out a book, from... somewhere. Jason doesn't think it's one of Reyna's, and he doesn't think Annabeth had moved to get one, either.

"Is there anything you want to ask me?" Octavian asks. "Anything you want to know, anything else bothering you?"

Jason shrugged. "Not particularly. Though... I guess there is one. Why do you fear Medea so much, I mean. Aside from Typhon, which was not an attack on your person and was a bad choice on her part, she has never done anything to you."

Octavian bites his lip. "I guess I was... Projecting. All of my problems were applied to her, and then I could pretend that I, myself was fine."

Jason nods. "That makes sense. She doesn't know you're scared of her, you know. She likes you, and everyone else."

Octavian frowned. "She likes me?"

Jason nods, smiling.

"But why?" Octavian sips the wine more, a healthy blush rising to his face as he drank more and more. Well, for most, the blush would be considered "normal skin tone".

"Okay, I know I've said she's dumb, and sometimes she is, but she can tell if I or the people around her like someone by our reactions to them, and so, people I like she tends to like. I like you, and I've never shown her any sign that I don't, at least none she'd understand, so, she likes you."

Octavian hummed. "Fine."

Jason smiles brightly.

Octavian leans over to kiss his cheek.

Jason giggles a little, still smiling. There's a blush starting, but Annabeth isn't paying attention to them so he's okay for now.

Octavian closes his eyes and breathes. "What did you miss about New Rome?"

"The house, my pets, a boyfriend I couldn't remember, and the hot chocolate."

Octavian covers his mouth. "Did you feel the same way when you remembered me? Everything I'd done?"

"Mmhmm."

"You wanted to see me again, despite everything?"

Jason smiled. "Part of it was just wanting to know what happened. Plus... I could never hate you, and believe me, for a while I tried. Not very hard, but I did."

If Octavian were not the wrong one in the scenario, he might have been upset by this. But he was in the wrong.

Jason smiles. "And I think it's for the best anyway. You're important to me, and even if things got a little.... off, for a while, that's still true."

Octavian looked away guiltily. "If I didn't know you, I would assume you had Stockholm syndrome."

Jason laughs, but Annabeth buts in. "It's entirely possible."

Octavian nods at Annabeth. "My point exactly. Jason, this sounds... Bad. On your part and mine. And I don't want to be in another unhealthy relationship with you, okay?"

Jason sighs. Annabeth glances over. "Well, perhaps you should try Piper's idea. I don't particularly like it, and if either of you hurt Percy you will find out how good I am at using a bone to kill you with, but if nothing else Nico and possibly my idiot of an ex-boyfriend, though that's unlikely, can tell when a relationship is toxic."

It finally dawns on Octavian that a relationship with Jason and Nico Di Angelo includes Percy Jackson. He curses and tips the drink back for a new sip.

"What?" Jason looks over, worried. "Is something wrong??"

"You know I don't know Percy Jackson well, yes?" Octavian replied.

Jason frowned. "Well... his opinion of you isn't that great, either, but Denny likes both of you and I'm sure the two of you can learn to like each other."

"If only for Denny's and your sakes?

Jason nods. "Yes. Also sorry I accidentally stole your cat earlier, she was riding my lion."

"I assumed she was with Elle... I'm horrible at this."

Jason laughs. "Is that where she goes all the time?"

Octavian sips the wine he's still holding. "My grandmother."

Jason nods. "Ah. Makes sense." He smiles.

"Yes," Octavian nods.

Reyna comes in then, dragging a whining Percy by the ear, and leading Piper and Nico into the room.

Octavian looks up at them expectantly, lips pursing when his eyes fall on Percy.  
Piper smiles and falls down into the chair with Annabeth in it. "Okay, Jason, explain why we're all here."

Jason makes a noise like a car crash. Reyna should've told them on the way why would they think this is a good idea. Reyna tugs Percy into the room a bit more, and glances at Nico as he closes the door.

Piper covers her mouth. "Sorry, that was funny. Okay, so, you four boys need polyamory."

Jason has hidden his face in his hands, and Nico stands a bit straighter, mouthing the word. He'd never head it before.

Percy immediately nods. "I can give it a try." He doesn't know what polyamory is, but he assumes it's something interesting, since Annabeth is staring at him closely.

Jason makes a quiet noise of embarrassment. Nico glances at him worriedly.

Octavian closes his eyes to laugh quietly. Percy turns around, seeming to have only just realized Octavian was there.

Nico frowns at Octavian, and Jason takes a breath and sits up. "Okay, do you all know what Pipes meant?"

Percy shakes his head, and Annabeth sighs heavily. He takes it he did something wrong.

Jason takes a breath, as Nico shrugs helplessly. Jason glances at Octavian, before deciding it would be better if he explained it. "Polyamory is when three or more people are in a relationship. Like Pipes, Rey-rey and Annabeth." Reyna makes a noise of annoyance at the nickname.

Octavian offers Reyna his empty wineglass, and she nods as she goes to fill it. He opts against speaking, though.  
"And me, you, and Nico are being told to get into this?" Percy asks. "I mean... I'm not speaking for you or Nico, but I know how this sounds. Awkward. I mean, Nico, don't you like Annabeth still?"

Nico makes a noise of annoyance and throws his hands up. The whole thing sounded interesting, but Percy is an idiot. Jason snorts. "No, Jackson, I can verify he does not, and has probably never, liked Annabeth. And the relationship includes Octavian, that's why he's here."

Octavian waves at Percy, his fingers waggling obnoxiously. Percy narrows his eyes at the auger. "You're kidding me. He tried to kill you- what, how many times? And Gwen! He actually killed Gwen!"  
Octavian stands. "Excuse me," he interrupts. "I did not kill her. Bryce Lawrence killed her, and now Bryce Lawrence is missing in action."

Jason nods. That made sense. He'd never really thought about any reasons for Octavian to kill Gwen, but he really didn't have any. Nico frowns.  
"Are you sure about this?" He looks at Jason, who nods a little, still smiling.

"I have not seen him since I sent him to find- to find you, actually." Octavian narrows his eyes.

Nico coughs, looking away, and Jason frowns. "Huh."

Octavian crosses his arms. "I knew it. Did you make it painful? Details, now."

Nico coughs a bit more, and mumbles under his breath. Jason tilts his head.

Octavian sits back down and accepts the wineglass from Reyna. "So you weren't lying." He says to her, shaking his head. "Good riddance."

Nico sighs a little, but doesn't elaborate. Jason blinks, and then he understands. Sort of.

Percy is still confused. "So Octavian didn't kill Gwen?"

"No." Jason says gently, as Annabeth rolls her eyes with a huff.

Percy looks at Octavian. "He's still rude."  
"I was grieving, you were greek, you showed up with Juno- I repeat, with Juno, and you were a son of Neptune. You were chosen as praetor within a week, were disrespectful of Mars and blatantly disrespectful to any authority figure you came across, and you felt wrong!" Octavian shoved the glass into Jason's hand as he stood again. "Can you truly blame me?"

Jason sighs, holding the glass and standing up to gently place a hand on Octavian's shoulder. "Please don't yell."

"Do you understand though?" Octavian turned on his heel. "He shows up with nothing but his name and the wrong names of our gods on his tongue, and with no papers, no nothing, other than a claimed week or so with our goddess, and he felt wrong!"

"I understand. But yelling won't fix it, all it will do is spur this into a physical fight, which you are, sadly, not on his level. Forgive me for being worried for your well-being."

Octavian made an exasperated, angry noise, and glared at Percy.  
Percy looked at Annabeth. "Can we just not include him in it? Everything else is fine."

Jason growls, low and menacing. Annabeth makes a gesture at Jason, as if to say 'convine him, it's not my idea'.

Percy looks at Jason. "Bro. Please."

Jason growls a little more, before coughing and straightening up. "Either it's the four of us, or it's us and Nico. Unless Nico would rather not...?"  
Nico glances over, and presses a hand to his chin, thinking it over.

Percy's jaw dropped. "You'd pick the guy who tried to kill you over me?"

Jason's eyebrows rise. "Did I not just literally say that? Didn't I just say that?"

"You can't be serious right now! Weren't we literally talking about this, about everything, and how we were going to take a road trip just to figure things out? Wasn't that the plan?"

Jason nods. "Yeah. I'm probably still going to do that, but I'm almost certain I'm gonna pick Octavian because we've talked about our issues and have resolved most of them, and I happen to _still like him_ even if he's fucked up royally in the past. It's in the past, it didn't happen to you, get over yourself."

Octavian wants to butt in but he isn't sure he could say anything right at the moment. He is torn between siding with Jackson, because he really is a bad option, but Jason is standing up for him and protecting him.  
"Do I have to do things with him? If I'm apart of this thing?" Percy finally asks, after a long pause.

"Not unless you both want to. Mostly, we'll be living together and existing in the same place and such. Think of him as the roommate you want to smother with his pillow if it'll make you sleep better."

Percy finally nods. "Where is the place we'll all be living?"

Jason looks at Octavian, asking if they'll be staying in their old house, or if they'll move.

Octavian gave a little nod- the home was more than enough space for them, the boys, and even the girls.

Jason smiles. "Ours."

Percy gave Octavian a side glance, then finally nodded.

Jason smiles brightly. Nico nods a little, and Jason beams.

Percy huffed, and Octavian took his wine back from Jason. "Reyna, Annabeth," He pauses, and genuinely cannot remember the other girl's name. "Thank you three."

Jason smiles at Piper. "You too Pipes. You're the best." Reyna rolls her eyes and pats Octavian's shoulder.

Octavian shares a look with the praetor, mentally making a note to buy her something nice, something that she'd enjoy.

Reyna smiles softly, and Jason grins at Piper.

Piper throws an arm around Reyna's shoulders. "I am the best, thank you."

Reyna laughs, and Jason's grin looks like it /hurts/ it's so big. Annabeth smiles a bit as well.

Octavian feels the slightest of pangs of jealousy- this is what people close to Jason look like. He offers a small smile, but doesn't feel like it works.

Jason wraps his arm around Octavian, leaning into his space and cuddling.

Octavian sighs in relief and leans up to kiss Jason's cheek- damn those three inches.

Jason giggles, smiling, and Reyna hums softly.

Percy looks at Nico. "If you didn't like Annabeth, why did you hate me?"

Nico sighs. "I didn't really hate you. I just... I..." Jason gets up, going to the younger boy. "Do you want me to explain?"

Percy looks at Jason weirdly, and Octavian follows Jason. "It's obvious." He says simply.

Nico hides his face, and nods for Jason to explain, mostly because he still can't bring himself to say it. So Jason turns to Percy, and speaks slowly. "Nico had a crush on you. He still does."

If Percy had been holding anything, he would have dropped it at that moment. "What?"

Jason frowns a little. "Nico was never interested in Annabeth, he liked you. I'm trying to use the simplest explanation here." Nico groans softly, pressing his hands into his eyes a little in mortification.

"But- but why?" Percy asked. "How? Annabeth is perfect and way cooler than me, and I was offered godhood."

Jason rolls his eyes. "I'm not saying that Annabeth is not an amazing, talented person. But Nico was, what, nine? When he met you. He idolized you, and that turned into a crush, and when people assumed he liked Annabeth he didn't correct them because, even if he couldn't remember it very well, back in his time liking the same sex was wrong, right?" He looks at Nico, who nods a little.

Percy doesn't know how to react or what to do. He feels confused and mildly uncomfortable.

Jason claps a hand on his shoulder. "So, Nico can do whatever he wants and he's agreed to be in this relationship with us, and we can talk about things in detail later. Right?" He directs the last word at the others, Reyna, Octavian and Piper in particular.

Octavian nods, and Piper does too, leaning on Reyna more.

Jason smiles. He turns back to Percy, and Nico stands a little closer. "So does that mean we can head toward the house now?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jason said he was going on a road trip

Nico clutched his bag close to his chest with one hand, the other holding his Stygian iron sword. The blade is slick with blood from a wound on his hand, and Jason had led him to a house, which they'd had to break into due to it being a nice shade of three am. There are a few ghosts chasing them that Nico cannot control- he hates being unable to work with shadows- and Jason is tearing apart the place, looking for _salt_ , of all things. "I hate road trips." Nico mumbles to himself.

Jason snorts. "You're just saying that 'cause you've never been on a good one." He finally finds a nice big bag of Salt, and begins pouring it in a circle around them. "Don't cross the salt line, okay?"

"What good is sea salt going to do? We left Percy behind for a reason." Nico huffs. "Neither of us can do anything with it, and I doubt even Hazel could."

"It's not a weapon, it's a protective barrier. Spirits can't cross it, so they can't touch us."

"What mythos is that from?" Nico side eyes Jason.

"Would you believe me if I said I learned it from a TV show?"

"No." Nico says flatly. "Because that is an idiotic thing to say."

Jason laughs, finishing the circle and grinning at Nico. "Well, I did. And I know it works, too. None of the Lares at camp can pass salt lines, and while I've never tried it on regular spirits, it should work on these guys too. Now, I'm gonna go find some iron, you sit tight."

"I have iron. Stygian iron." Nico said, holding it up."

"I need regular Iron."

Nico groaned, and sat down in the circle, which was pretty big, all things considered.

Jason smiles at him. "I'll be back in a bit, I think there's a fireplace in the living room, there should be an Iron poker there I can use."

Nico goes into his bag to pull out his canteen of unicorn draught. "Fine."

Jason sketches a salute, and heads out toward the living room. 

One of the spirits, a female once named Mariah, appeared behind the blonde teen, her cracked lips grinning. She rushed towards him, prepared to claw him to shreds.

Jason ducks, grabbing a finstful of salt out of the bag he was still holding at throwing it at her. He bolts for the fireplace.

She dissipated, then reformed inside the fireplace, waiting until she saw some part of him to emerge.

Jason grabs the poker once he gets there, glancing around warily in case something jumps out at him again.

When she sees his hand, she dives down, reaching out with one large clawed hand to wrap around his wrist and tug violently upwards.

Jason grits his teeth. He manages to keep hold of the poker, and tries to see if he can hit her with it, even if she has a grip on his wrist.

Mariah recoils from the iron, but makes sure to scratch thick, deep lines into his skin before she does.

Jason keeps grinding his teeth, to keep from screaming, and once he gets his hand free he bolts for the kitchen, poker still held in his hand.

Mariah disappears to watch the other teen, the one that she recognized as a weak king of ghosts. If she beat him, then she could become the queen of ghosts...  
The other ghosts, a pair of males whose names had been lost long ago, are waiting in the open and staring intensely at Nico.

Jason gets back to the kitchen, thanking several gods that he made sure the salt circle extended very closely to the doorway.

Nico looks at Jason and frowns, reaching out for his injured arm. "What happened?"

"Spirit got me while I was grabbing the poker. I should be fine."

Nico offered him a square of ambrosia.

Jason bit into it, eyes closing for a second and absorbing the flavor.

"What's yours?" Nico asks quietly, casting a glance at the two silent spirits watching him.

Jason blinks, thinking. "Kinda like burnt toast."

Nico turned to actually look at Jason hard. He knew why his own tasted like macaroni and cheese (comfort foods), but burnt toast? "Why?"

"Last meal I had with my sister. Mom had promised to make us breakfast but wasn't there in the morning, so Thalia made it, but she burnt the toast and undercooked the eggs.""

Nico's expression softened. "I see." He doesn't know Thalia Grace well, but their relationship had always been strained.

Jason just beams at him. He'd never really talked about his sister or this stuff with people before, but it was kinda nice to.

Jason's beaming face sort of made Nico want to get to know Thalia better, because if the mere mention of her made him that happy, then what would a full conversation about her do?

Jason just kept smiling, as he turned toward the two ghosts in the room. He wasn't sure how they were going to... well... take care of them, because there really wasn't any way to get rid of them for good without knowing where their bodies were.

"Jason, how long can you hold them?" Nico asks, pulling the unicorn draught out to take a hearty gulp. Then another.

"Well, the salt will last indefinitely so long as we don't break the line, and the iron hurts them when you hit them with it. So, we've got for as long as the salt lines hold and after that we're good until they manage to separate us from the iron."

Nico nods as if every bit of that makes perfect sense, which it feels like it shouldn't, by the way. "I need to either go down to my dad or call him. Or something, I need one of my stepmom's pomegranates and I need something to get rid of them."

Jason glances outside. It's still dark out, but... "Can you shadow travel? How do you get messages to your dad anyway?"

"I go to him or I go through Morpheus." Nico shrugs as if it isn't a big deal. "I made a deal with him back during the Titan war that I wouldn't know what side he was on if he didn't know what side I was on, and we'd do our best to avoid each other unless absolutely necessary. But I'd need to take a nap or get knocked unconscious for him. Only problem with shadow traveling is that I'm still pretty... You know." He makes a noncommittal wavy hand gesture.

"Yeah. You should sleep, then. I've got you covered, dude."

Nico nods, and takes a deep breath. "Punch me in the face. Hard."

Jason blinks at him. "What?"

"I can't fall asleep with them staring at me." Nico points a thumb at the pair of ghosts. "And I'm too nervous anyways."

Jason sighs. "Okay, I understand." He glances at the ghosts, before looking back at Nico. "Do I have to hit you? Is there some other way to knock you out?"

"I don't know!" Nico looks at the ghosts exasperatedly. "If you can think of something, you can do it."

Jason sighed. He really had no idea, he just... he didn't want to hit Nico. It felt wrong.

"What helps you fall asleep?" Nico asks. "When you can't."

"Hot chocolate and a cuddly animal or three. And sometimes I play music."

"And we have none of those." Nico sighed.

"I've got instant hot chocolate mix in here, and the salt line extends right in front of the microwave, and with a little stretching we could probably get a cup and poor water in it" Jason rummages through his bag, pulling out a slightly bashed up bag of instant-hot chocolate.

A third spirit, the one who's clawed Jason, appears in front of the microwave. "Try." She hisses.

Jason smiles. "That's the plan, lady." He goes for the cups first, anyway, because they're in the cupboard closer to him.

She lunges for his outstretched arm, but Nico snatches the poker from Jason to swipe at her, making her have to dissipate first.

Jason has the cup in hand now, and grins at Nico. "Thanks dude."

Nico smiles at him. "You're welcome."

Jason beams again. He grabs the bag of salt and extends the salt line(without breaking it) out toward the sink.

"Don't we have bottled water?" Nico asks.

"Do we?" Jason looks at him, startled.

"Why wouldn't we?" Nico asks, pulling a bottle out.

"I was not aware of this." Jason takes it, pouring it into the cup and then pouring a generous amount of the mix into the cup too.

Nico snorts and looks back at the ghosts. "You're kidding, please."

"Nope." Jason hums, and picks up the bag of salt to extend toward the microwave now, since clearly it's a bad idea to reach outside the circle now.

The female ghost reappears behind Nico, outside the circle, her eyes narrowed. She turns to the others, beckoning for them to approach, but they do not.

Jason throws a handful of salt at her. It has the added effect of not messing up the lines if it lands on them.

She hisses angrily as she dissipates again, and doesn't reappear immediately. "Can't you just punch me or choke me or something? This is taking forever." Nico looks back at the pair, but realizes they aren't there anymore. That scares him more.

Jason sighs. "I really don't want to, but okay." He steps a little closer to Nico, putting the cup and bag of salt on the ground behind himself, and bites his lip. "I am so not choking you though, like no." He's really not sure if punching Nico will really help, but he pivots quickly and hits the kid in the cheek, hard but hopefully not hard enough to break anything. He avoided the nose and eyes because he really didn't want to hurt him too badly.

Nico's vision goes black, but it's a few seconds before he actually passes out. Then it's an undetermined amount of time in blackness and him yelling for Morpheus before the god shows up. They speak for a few minutes, and he promises to deliver the message to Hades, as well as the request to Persephone. Then all there really is is a wait for him to come back.

Jason catches Nico and lays him so all of him is inside the circle but leaves enough room for Jason to get around. And then Jason goes back to making hot chocolate because _he_ wants some now.

Nico waits for a good... Long time before the god comes back, bearing a satchel in the same black fabric Hades always uses for Nico's bags when he gives him wrapped things. "You have a stick in there that will control and spirit it touches, two pomegranates, and a black credit card charge to Hades. And, some kind of Stygian iron bracelet, Persephone said you can wear it or give it to your- she used the term "pais", but I don't think you have one of those." Morpheus looks close to a blush, but mostly he just looks bored. "Take care, Di Angelo."

Jason has made his chocolate, and is sitting next to Nico, sipping it and glancing around the room. He probably looks rather like a kicked puppy, even if Nico is the one with a bruise forming.

Nico takes the satchel and nods to Morpheus, who touches Nico's forehead to send him back. It takes a few minutes before he has his bearings, and the gist of those are that he has his face pressed into Jason's thigh.

Jason had been sipping his chocolate, when there was a pressure on his thigh and he tenses, turning to look down and.... he can't tell id Nico is awake or not but his bruise stands out a lot and Jason bites his lip.

"Ow." Nico mumbles, sitting up slowly without opening his eyes.

A good portion of Jason's instincts are telling him to whine and lick Nico's face as an apology, but that won't do any good and would just be weird. So he sips his Hot Chocolate and tries not to look too pitiful. He's probably not succeeding.

Nico squeezes the satchel in hand and gently opens his eyes. "I got the stuff." He says, and opens it, pulling out the biggest thing- a coppery stick.

Jason sips again.

Nico looks around, but none of the ghosts are nearby. "I have an idea, but in involves the ghosts being close. Close enough to touch." Nico holds up the stick.

Jason shrugs. "As good an idea as any we've had."

"Can you get the girl here?" Nico asks. "She seems easiest."

"I can step out of the circle and see who comes?"

Nico nods, and stands. "Wait- there's one other thing." He reached in and searched for the bracelet that had been mentioned. It looks simple, a flowing snakelike chain with a thick, round pendant/clasp. When Nico stretched it, it pulled out more coils, and he assumed it would easily fit around anyone's wrist. "It's a gift from Persephone, but I don't know what it does. She likes me now, so if you trust her," he doesn't add the "trust me" that he thinks. "Want to try it?"

"Sure thing." He smiles, and offers his wrist.

Nico rolls it onto Jason's hand, and it moves the rest of the way down. "Is it too tight?" Nico asks.

Jason shrugs. "It's fine. Is it supposed to make my arm tingly?"

Nico shrugged. "I don't know. Morpheus said she called you a Pais." When Nico says the last word, a shield expands from the round center. Nico's eyes widen and he grabs Jason's other arm, then he laughs. Loudly. Weakly at first, but then loud and heartily. He can't help it- Persephone must have been chuckling to herself if she truly thought Jason was one of those.

Jason blinks, startled, and then he's smiling because Nico is laughing and he looks so happy. The shield is pretty cool, but Nico's happiness is truly impressive.

Nico finally stops laughing after a few minutes, eyes crinkled a the corners.

Jason keeps smiling. He's tired and a little frazzled and right now he can't remember what Pais means, if he ever knew, but he doesn't care. And Nico still just looks so happy, he can't help his smile.

"Go catch a ghost, Grace." Nico says, pulling out the stick.

Jason laughs, and steps outside the circle, grabbing the iron poker as he does.

Nico waits, and decides to check out the pomegranates. One is fleshy and ripe, the other crystal. He leaves it for later, when the immediate danger is less immediate.

Jason glances around, shield and poker at the ready. He takes a couple more steps out of the circle

The female ghost reappears right next to Jason, latching onto him, one clawed hand in his shoulder, and the other in his lower chest/upper stomach. Nico dices forwards, shoving the stick in the middle of her shadowy mass, and she freezes in place.

Jason keeps still, not sure what to do. He's not sure but he thinks he sees one of the other ghosts.

"Go. Back. To. Punishment." Nico says to the ghost. She sinks through to the floor, leaving Nico with a stick and an injured Jason.

Jason coughs.

"I'll be right back." Nico says, stepping out of the circle and going straight for the pair who had been staring at them creepily. He steers them out of Jason's sight before banishing them.

Jason stays where he is, swaying a little but managing to stay upright. Today has not been his day.

Nico comes back a moment later, still clutching the satchel and the stick. "You owe me mac'n'cheese. Soul search, soul food."

Jason blinks a couple times. "Okay."

Nico picked up their bags and grabbed Jason's uninjured arm. "We're going to the motel down the street and I am cleaning you up, okay?"

Jason blinks a few more times. "Okay." There are black spots in his vision.

Nico leads Jason there slowly, and buys a room for a week with the black credit card Persephone sent him.

Jason cannot, for the life of him, tell you how he got to the room he finds himself in now.

After Jason is no longer bleeding, Nico leaves to buy about a hundred dollars of soul food. He reenters the motel room and sits on the bed next to Jason after putting the food on the table. "Hey. You good?"

Jason finds himself sitting on a bed, and looks up at Nico. He still feels realy bad about the bruise on Nico's face. "Probably."

"My face hurts but I got cool stuff. Thank you for doing it. Seriously."

Jason nodded, even if he didn't look any less guilty.

"If you keep acting like a puppy, Denny will stop liking you." Nico rolled his eyes.

"I feed her. She will never stop liking me. She apparently trained me so where I do it on instinct now. Do you know how many times I've stubbed my toe on something and tried to feed it a fish? I don't even know where I'm getting them from."

Nico laughs, then remembers the crystal pomegranate. He goes to the chair where he put it, still annoyed that there is only one bed.

Jason glances around. "Wait. Where are we?" He swears he recognizes this room.

"Motel room." Nico replies.

"Motel? Which motel?" No. No way.

"I don't know?" Nico looks up. "Why?"

Jason glanced around. He could almost swear this was... "I'm going to sound crazy but I think this is the one from that TV show I mentioned before."

Nico stared at Jason. "Uh huh."

"No I'm serious this is from that TV show that taught me the salt thing."

Nico looked at Jason harder. "Uh. Huh."

"I don't make tings like tis up dude. I'm horrible at lying."

"I know you are not lying, I just cannot find it in myself to care about that tv show. Back in _my_ day," he starts.

"Diana was literally in it. She din't play herself, even though the writers wrote a honestly horrible plot about her later..."

"Back in _my_ day," Nico repeats.

"...And then there's just so much homoerotic subtext..."

Nico goes to Jason and sits next to him. "Go on."

~o~

Jason hated being kidnapped. There's a blank spot in his memory, shortly after he met a tall guy wearing a headband, and now he's sitting in a room alone. He's shirtless and annoyed because any weapons and _most of his clothing, godsdamn it is cold in here_ is missing and he has a migraine to end all migraines. And there's a black girl sitting a few feet away staring at him intently.

Jae Quinn was at the florist's shop when a girl with a cute headband started flirting with her. They got to an alleyway, then something had hit her on the head, and she'd blacked out. Now she was only wearing her bra and her shorts. Her cute heels- the black ones with the tall heels and the bows on the back that were like, eighty dollars too much and fit her _perfectly_ \- were gone, and her big, soft purple shirt was gone, her hair was out of its giant bun, and her pocketknife was, you guessed it, gone. Even her locket was stolen. The leather bracelets were left, but she cared less about that than her shirt, because it was freezing. Atleast the other half naked person- a white guy with blonde hair- is waking up.

Jason blinked a few times, glancing around. He felt like he should know what was going on, or at least have an idea of it, but he was lost.

"Who are you?" Jae Quinn asks.

"Uh. Jason Grace."

"Jae Quinn Grayson." She replied, eyes narrowing. "Well, if this isn't a cosmic coincidence. Did you get picked up by Zoe too?"

"...No. There was a guy with a headband though"

"Red headband? Sorta looked like horns? Really cute?"

"Dunno about the last one, but yeah."

Jae Quinn sighed. "I don't know what we're supposed to do now. I'm cold and kind of annoyed."

"I'm cold and probably concussed myself." Jason admits.

"I looked for a way out, but there isn't, unless you count that vent, and it's about ten meters up."

"In a minute or two I could probably use that."

"How? You're tall, I think, but not that tall."

"I'm 6'1, yea, but I'm gonna fly."

"You are concussed." Jae Quinn says, sighing deeply. She's locked up with a nut?

Jason grunts, before standing up slowly. His head swims a little, but it passes and then he gets a good look at the vent.

Jae Quinn watches him, fishing around in her pocket for her phone. It's gone, but she finds a lollipop, and that's cool. She unwraps it and shoves it in her mouth- mm, grape- as she watches the nut stand up.

Jason takes a few minutes to get his bearings, and then he pulls a few air currents underneath himself, slowly lifting off the ground.

Jae Quinn's eyes widen, but she doesn't move.

Jason reaches the vent, checking it over. He touches it, and an impressive discharge of electricity shot through him. It went harmlessly through, but it showed the vent was a no-go.

Jae Quinn sees the white and orange and blue sparks, but Nut doesn't fall, he calmly descends. "Okay. That way's a no-go then." She sighs. "I don't know what's going on, but I swear, if I die before I get laid I am going to come back and haunt the shit out of Zoe."

Jason snorts. "Um."

"What about you? Have you ever" She makes a weird shooing motion at him with her hands, and stands up.

"Ye-" Jason pauses. Would Juno have made him a clean slate in every sense? ...Yeah, she would. Wait. Pair of virgins held in an area with no escape routes...

"You have? So the only thing about us is our names." She sighs in annoyance.

"Wait wait wait... I might be born again..."

Her eyebrows arch. "And that counts how?"

"We might be virgin sacrifices."

She groans. "How do I get out of doing that?"

Jason bites his lip. "We _could_ do... things, but I don't really know if that would work."

"As long as I get out of being a sacrifice, I'm good." She stands. "I don't think you have a condom, though." She wrinkles her nose in annoyance.

Jason coughs. And then a door he hadn't noticed opens.

Jae Quinn looks at it, then says a few angry and inventive curses at the sight of Zoe and someone who looks just like her but male, behind her.

Jason blinks, and then he frowns. Mac steps forward with a smile.

Zoe goes straight for Jae Quinn, who backs up, shaking her finger. "No, no, no."

Mac steps right into Jason's space, and when the tall guy tries to touch his shoulder there's a pretty impressive explosion of static electricity. Mac falls over.

Jae Quinn pointed at Zoe. "Mine next."

Jason starts to move forward, but Mac grabs him by the ankle and growls, and Jason yelps as he falls on his face.

Jae Quinn looks back at Zoe, and punches her in the face. "That's for those damn heels." She goes over to Mac and kicks him in the arm, and grabs Jason. "C'mon Nut, I'm not fucking dying today, and you're not allowed to either." She isn't sure where she got the energy, but those heels were a hundred and twenty dollars and she is _not_ dying today, damnit.

Jason scrambles up, and glances worriedly, but yanks Jae Quinn along. "We should really start running."

"Bitch, we are finding our shoes." Jae Quinn says.

"Then lets run while looking for them. Don't you want to not die?"

Jae Quinn rolled her eyes, and then stopped running, as she'd found an open doorway. She ducks inside and grabs her stuff, quickly redressing.

Jason goes straight for the weapons, in specific the gold lance and the backpack hanging next to it.

"Aren't you going to put your clothes on?" She asks.

"I'm more concerned with being able to defend myself."

"Your chest is nice and all, but it's november."

"My shirt is the purple one, if you'd like to toss it to me."

She does, snorting when it lands on his shoulder instead of his hand. Then she sees a weird looking weapon with black everything and a leather handle, and picks it up. She feels like she knows exactly what it is- a macuahuitl. Aztec weapon, made from obsidian. She grins and hooks it through her belt. "Ready, Nut?"

"My name is Jason." He pulls the shirt on, and tugs the backpack on too. e readies his lance, frowning.

"I know, Nut fits you better." She slips back into her heels, and squares her shoulders. "Now let's go, Nut."

Jason makes a mock offended noise, but peeks out of the room, checking for Zoe or her brother.

Jae Quinn pulls out the macuahuitl, realizing that it's name is Izel, or unique. And that isn't wrong, really. It is unique. She wonders how it would stand against a cyclops.

Jason waves her forward. "Coast's clear for now. Keep your guard up"

"My guard is always up, I'm a daughter of-" She pauses and looks behind them.

Jason glances at her. "What?" He glances around just in case something is coming from both directions.

"You take yours, I'll take mine." She backs up against Jason's back, purple-lined eyes narrowing. "Capiche?"

"Got it." Jason holds his lance up, eyes locked on Mac, who was glowering at him.

"Never used you before, izel, but thanks for this." Jae Quinn whispers to her sword, staring at Zoe. "Turn around, I'll take yours and you take mine."

"Alright." Jason switches places with her, and feints at Zoe.

Jae Quinn blocks a hit from Mac.

Mac snarls and tries to lunge past her, but Jason unknowingly dodges him, while trying to hit Zoe.

Jae Quinn turns to fight next to Jason, jabbing at Zoe.

Jason swerves, and stabs at Mac. He manages to nick him, and golden ichor spills forth.

Zoe dodges, and Jae Quinn grabs her knife from Jason's hip to throw at Zoe. It hits her in the shoulder, and Jae Quinn rushes forwards to stab her in the stomach with izel.

Jason manages to swing his Lance and slam Mac into the wall, and pins him there by the throat.

As Zoe dissolves, Jae Quinn grabs her knife and turns to stab it into Mac's temple, and wiggles it around. She pulls it back, with him dissolving. "We need to go, that won't keep them."

"Yeah, I've got a boyfriend who can help."

Jae Quinn nodded. "Where is he? I recognize this hallway now."

"Our hotel room, probably." He waves her along. "I can lead us there, probably."

Jae Quinn nods. "What room number?"

"614"

She nods and goes down the hall to an elevator. She pulls Jason inside, and presses the button with the number 6 on it. "There's only one hotel in town."

"Oh."

She chuckles as she waits, the horrible music following them through the nine floors it takes to reach the sixth.

Jason leans against his lance. "Oh yeah, I didn't introduce myself properly. I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter."

"Jae Quinn, son of your ass- wait- Jupiter?" She asks, looking at him weirdly.

Jason doesn't bat an eye at the first part of the sentence. "Yeah, Jupiter. His Greek form is... Zeus."

She gets out of the elevator and looks at him weirdly. "He broke his pact again?"

Jason coughs. "Well, technically, Jupiter never took an oath, but my mother attracted both his Greek and Roman form, anyway, so. Yes."

"Greek and Roman? So you're related to Thalia?"

"She's my big sister, yes."

Jae Quinn whistled. "Your sister is hot."

Jason coughs. "Er, if you say so."

"She is hotter than you. Room 614, you said?"

"That I can agree with you about. And yeah."

Jae Quinn walks down the hallway, tucking her knife into her hair and izel into her belt.

Jason simply keeps the lance out, trusting the mist to work. They reach the room, and Jason knocks on the door.

Jae Quinn stands next to him, waiting. Nico di Angelo opens the door angrily, and opens his mouth to yell at Jason before he notices her. "Aren't you in the Athena cabin?" He asks.

Jason blinks. and then he smiles. "Oh! Okay. that makes sense."

She rolls her eyes. "Di angelo, glad you're alive. We need to leave."

Jason nods. "Yeah, Sunshine. We gotta go."

Nico turns and retreats into the room for a moment to grab his bag and toss the other one to Jason. Jae Quinn leaves the room.

Jason catches the bag, slinging onto his shoulder on top of the backpack he was already wearing.

Nico stretches. "Why is she here?"

"We were kidnapped to be virgin sacrifices."

Nico dropped his bag. "What???"

"Yeah. That's why I was late, by the way. I think I have a concussion."

Nico makes an annoyed noise.

Jason just tries for a smile. He looks a little lost, but he's trying.

Nico goes over to him and grabs his chin, making more annoyed noises, with some worried noises mixed in.

Jason blinks a couple times. "We should really get going, those two gods we were fighting won't stay down forever."

Nico pulls Jason down for a light, chaste kiss on the jaw, then turns to going back to getting ready. He might be blushing, and he might be fueled by the note in Persephone's crystal pomagranate. Maybe. Jae Quinn reenters the room with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder.

Jason just keeps still, still smiling. He grins at Jae Quinn when she enters.

When they're all together, Nico checks to make sure Jason is still wearing his bracelet, and grabs both his hands and Jae Quinn's hands. "Where are we going?"

"New Rome. My two weeks notice should've reached Reyna by now."

Nico nods, and Jae Quinn opens her mouth to say "Wait- what?" as they sink thhrough the shadows in on the floor.

Jason grins.

They end up on the bridge crossing into Camp Jupiter, Jae Quinn immediately falling onto her knees. "What the hell?" She asks.

"Shadow travel, the only way to travel."

Jae Quinn responds by gagging. Piper, Reyna, and Annabeth approach, Reyna on the verge of laughing and Annabeth staring at Jae Quinn.

Jason grins at Reyna. "Hey Rey Rey! did you get my pink slip?"

Reyna nods. Annabeth frowns. "Jae Quinn?" She stands slowly, nodding. "Yes, I'm sorry I left so suddenly... I could not stay anymore. Not after Oliver." Annabeth shakes her head. "No, it's alright. I understand, we all understood."

Jason frowns. He doesn't know what happened, but he looks at Jae Quinn worriedly.

Annabeth and Jae Quinn hug, then seperate. Nico steps forwards. "May we?" He points at camp.

Jason smiles. "Yeah, I'd like to go to the house." Reyna rolls her eyes.

Jae Quinn stays with Annabeth and Reyna and Piper, and Nico and Jason head for the house.

Jason pulls the key from its hiding spot above the door, stepping inside.

Percy and Octavian are on the couch in the room next to the entry hall, Octavian under Percy and their clothing everywhere. Nico can't see much else other than Percy's butt, and hear much else other than Octavian ordering Percy to do something.

Jason grabs Nico by the head, slapping his hands over the younger boy's ears, and herding him back out of the house, face flushed.

Percy pauses just long enough to ask "Did you hear the door?" before Octavian pulls him back in.  
Nico allows himself to be led, eyes wide and confused.

"Okay house isn't an option. How do the 5th's barracks sound?"

"Huh?" Nico asks. He thinks Jason said something, but his hands are still on Nico's ears.

Jason removes his hands, still red-faced. "How does the 5th's barracks sound?" He repeats.

"But I want to put my stuff down and I'm not in the mood for dealing with the barracks. And Hazel told me she was in camp half-blood right now. What are Percy and Octavian doing in there?"

"You don't want to know and neither do I."

"I do want to know though." Nico looked up at Jason with puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

"No." Jason puts his foot down, protective instincts making him mostly immune to the puppy dog eyes.

Nico pouts obnoxiously. He normally wouldn't do this, but he needs to know. "Atleast go back in with me and put our stuff down. That's our place too."

"We can do that later." Jason insists, steering Nico off toward the forum.

Nico pulls away from Jason and towards the darker side of the walkway, fully meaning to shadow travel to the house.

Jason yanks him back, wrapping himself around Nico obnoxiously.

The next step they take, Nico wills themselves to melt down into the shadows, heading for the downstairs bathroom in the house. They appear there, but Nico can't breathe right or see well for a moment, because he was already tired, and now he's annoyingly close to passing out.

Jason sighs. "Niiiicooo." He was hoping the younger boy wouldn't do that. He drops his bags and swings the 14 year-old over his shoulder.

Nico groans and hangs there limply.

Jason pats him. "We're going to your room and not leaving until Perce and Prince are done and passed out.

Nico mumbles something, halfway to asleep already.


	7. Chapter 7

When Jason and Nico left for a soul-searching road trip, Octavian and Percy were left alone. 

Tensions ran high, many stuffed guts were spilled, and there were constant arguments. About two weeks in, they were arguing about the validity of candy corn when Octavian surged forwards and mashed their lips together. Before they knew exactly what was happening, they had had really intense sex in the kitchen. For a day or so after that, everything was really weird between them, but then Percy started an argument on gummy bears, and it happened again. Then it was fair game and not awkward at all, but with the added bonus of contented cuddling after the act- but never any time else. They were never gentle with each other any time but then, and that was okay. Completely okay.

Jason has had this routine, for years now, where he and Octavian would spend a day, usually a weekend, watching a cute, romantic movie or a comedy, or sometimes an action movie. Never horror, even though Jason adored them. He was so behind on the horror movie front, it's horrible. Anyway, that was a routine he liked. And now Percy has thrown wrench after wrench into this routine and practically destroyed it.

Octavian had chosen the original Annie for him and Jason to watch this time, but they had barely made it through "Maybe" when Percy walked in and began to insult dried sugar-coated pineapples in Octavian's direction. He couldn't help but pause the movie to shoot a reply back.

Jason throws up his hands and heads for the door. He's been putting off complaining to Reyna. Might as well do it, now. It's been a month since he got back and he hasn't finished one _single godsdamned_ movie since.

Octavian barely noticed his boyfriend leave. One moment he was there, then Percy took over everything. In fact, he didn't even know Nico was still home until the boy came into the living room and asked if they had any milk. From the scream Percy gave, he didn't remember Nico either.

Nico blinks at them. "I was gonna ask you if we had any butter, I wanted to grill a cheese and I can't find Jason."

"We thought you took him on a soul trip again?" Percy replies, confused.

"No? He was trying to watch a movie with Octavian last I saw him. He's been trying to do that for a month now."

"What do you mean, trying?" Octavian asks. "We've been watching movies every couple days."

"He hasn't finished a movie in a month."

Octavian thinks back, then looks pointedly at Percy, who is naked and cuddling with him on the couch- under a blanket, of course. "This is your fault. You always interrupt us."

"It's both of your faults. You," He points at Percy, "need to stop interrupting movie time because you're ruining one of Jason's routines," he motions to Octavian, "and you could easily just say no if the other idiot there tries anything."

"But he goads me into it, I can't help it- Jason is never rough enough to do what he does." Octavian realizes halfway through speaking that Nico probably doesn't need to know that.

Nico coughs. "You could tell Jason you want something. He's not a mind reader, and anyway he gets guilty when _he's_ the one that got hurt. Talk to eachother. And let him finish a movie at least once before the next month is over, or he'll probably cry."

Octavian frowned. "Alright. We should go to Reyna now..."

Nico sighs. "I just wanted to grill a cheese..."

"Can you grab my pants? And shirt? And underwear?" Percy asks sheepishly.

Nico sighs loudly. "You better buy me the most expensive mac and cheese you can find, Jackson." But he goes upstairs to get both of them clothing, because putting dirty clothes back on is gross.

Percy kisses Octavian tenderly, then pulls back. They both won't say a word.

Nico throws two bundles of clothes at them as he walks back to the kitchen.

Octavian and Percy pull on the first things they touch, and end up having to switch clothes immediately, both stifling laughter. They go to the kitchen then, to get Nico.

Nico is putting away the supplies he'd pulled out to make his cheese.

Octavian helps, but Percy stands in the doorway, admiring the sight of them, and the way they contrast.

Once that's done Nico wipes his hands on his pants and looks at them impatiently. "We're going to 

go see Reyna, right?"

Octavian nods, and Percy gestures around himself. "I'll stay and. Not. Jason is still mad at me all the time."

"Jason's mad 'cause you don't seem to understand that he wants to spend time with Octavian."

Percy crosses his arms. "Isn't this better than us fighting all the time?"

Nico sighs loudly. "Not really! All the two of you do is have sex, I know you do, and you can't have a normal conversation, it's really annoying! Jason and I would like to spend time with either of you two as well, but it's like you two forgot we were part of the relationship!" He throws his hands up. "Merde!"

"We didn't forget-" Octavian starts, but Percy interrupts. "I see opportunities and I take them! What is so wrong about that? You two can join if you want to."

"Excuse you, almost every time you two get it on Jason drags me out of the house because he thinks I'm too young to be doing things, and I'm pretty sure the only reason he didn't do that this time is because he was just so fed up with you two about it!"

"Please, we need to go to Reyna, can we save the arguments?" Octavian interrupts.

Nico huffs, and turns, heading out.

Octavian gives Percy a dangerous look, then follows Nico. Percy stays, upset about things. He wants to talk to Annabeth. No, he kind of wants her back. Except for the whole thing where he likes Jason now, and he likes his and Annabeth's friendship better. It was normal, good, safe. How things were now, though? The big foursome? It wasn't really working out, except for in a weird way with Octavian. And Jason is just getting more and more pissy, and now Nico's mad, so Percy doesn't know what to do. Maybe he should go back to camp half blood for a while.

Reyna is sitting on her porch, dogs poised on either side of her and Jason lying in her lap, whining. He hasn't managed a coherent word since he got there, but she doesn't mind. She just pets his hair and reads a book. Piper and Annabeth are enjoying the city.

Octavian hadn't completely expected Jason to be there, but it was a happy surprise. Well, other than the whole "crying Jason" thing. "Reyna, he starts.

She glances up over her book. Jason doesn't seem to have noticed them, but she pats his head lightly. "Hello, boys."

Octavian smiled at Reyna. "First off, we would like to apologize for any inconvenience. Second, may we have your advice?"

She nods a little. "What do you need?" Jason has sat up now, wiping his face.

"Relationship advice." Octavian shakes his head. "We seem to be having problems already."

Reyna huffed. Jason looked at her hopefully, and she rolls her eyes. "Tell me what your problems are." Nico crosses his arms. "Percy."

"When Nico and Jason were gone," Octavian starts, going up to settle on the wicker rocking chair in front of Reyna. "Percy and I fell into a pattern. We would fight over something pointless, then have really intense sex, then cuddle for hours. And, being alone, we didn't have any reason not to do so. But now that Jason and Nico are back, it's getting in the way of other things. And, since it was not mentioned that they had a problem, Percy and I kept doing it. What do we do?"

"Well, you should start by making sure you all know what you want in the relationship, at each stage. For instance, Jason would like to...?" She looks at Jason, who sighs. "I want to finish a movie. Any movie. At all."

Octavian smiled softly. "Like we used to, right?"

Jason nods frantically.

Octavian nods. "I can do that. What about you, Nico?"  
Percy walks up behind the group, apparently having decided to join them. He stays silent though, hearing the previous comments. He knows Reyna can see him, but is unsure about the others.

"I'd like to talk to someone who isn't Jason." Nico's tone is the epitome of bitching. Jason bites his lip, looking guilty, but Reyna pats his shoulder. She knows Nico means that Jason s the only person who actually tries to talk to him regularly.

"I would love to talk to you." Octavian and Percy end up saying at the same time. Octavian looks behind himself in surprise, then nods.

Nico raises his eyebrows. "Then why don't you? I live in the same house as you, use the same kitchen, watch the same TV, but Jason is the only person who even tries to have conversations with me."

Octavian points at Percy. "Every time I attempt to do anything inside the house, he interrupts me."

Reyna nods. "And therein lies your problem. Percy, why _do_ you feel the need to interrupt Octavian in all of his activities?"

"Because it's fun to get a rise out of him?" At the disbelieving stares, he sighs. "Fine. I don't feel like I can talk to Jason anymore, and Nico isn't an option because I don't know what to say. I keep thinking back on the past years, trying to figure out when he started liking me, and how I didn't notice, and I'm beating myself up for everything I said to him that was awful because I was awful and then there's Octavian, with this gigantic stick up his ass, and it's easier to shove the stick up farther than to deal with everything else." Octavian gives him a withering look, but says nothing.

Jason looks hurt. "I don't know why you feel like you can talk to me, I thought we were bros."

"But you got so mad at me, and then we didn't talk, and now I can't do anything without you getting mad at me!"

Jason sighs. "I get mad because all you seem to think about is what you want. What about Nico, or Octavian, or me? You're so self centered sometimes I can't even believe sometimes that we're friends! And it's not fun, because I really like talking to you, but I know if there's something bothering me I can't hold back about it."

Percy visibly flinched at the accusation of him being self centered. "I... I do think about." He starts weakly, then realizes he doesn't. Whenever he feels like doing something, he leaps in and does it. No matter what it is.

Jason just looks down, and bites his lip. "I didn't want to say anything because I knew it'd hurt you."

Octavian feels guilty- he probably had some part in the mutation of Percy's problem. Percy sits on the top step up to the porch.

Reyna sighs. "Jason, this is not your fault and you should not feel guilty. It is, more than likely, all of your faults it's come to this, so not a one of you should take all of the blame. Now that you've recognized that there is a problem, take steps to fix it. Perhaps create a chart and plan out which of you will spend time with who that day?" Jason looks up immediately, eyes glittering. He loved making charts and plans like that. Those were things he could do.

Octavian looks at Jason, a smile coming to his face. He could do that. Jason could do it better, but he could do it.

Nico nods slowly, and glances at Percy. Percy was the only one who really had a problem following rules.

"How strict will it be?" He asks.

Jason shrugs. "We don't really have to plan out much at all, just a vague guideline of who wants to spend time with whoever else. And there'll also probably be alone times and gatherings for three or all of us too."

Percy nods. "Is it a whole-day schedule?"

Jason shrugs. "Maybe? Depends."

"No matter what," Octavian interrupts. "I have a job to do. I can't spend all day with you three."

Jason nods. "Any obligations you have will also be worked into it." Reyna rolls her eyes. "Go ahead, rub your retirement in our faces a bit more, Grace."

Percy groaned. "Do I have to still be in the legion? I served my time. Two wars, and five years around those. That has to count for something." Octavian makes an offended noise at the idea of him just getting out of it like that.

"Ten years is a minimum requirement, and Jason has served 12, not counting the year he was at Camp Half-Blood. Nico is not part of the legion, and thus does not have any obligations to it, either. You can't just expect a free pass because you happened to be a piece of a prophecy, Jackson." Reyna chides him, face stern.

"I'm not even roman!" Percy complained. "I came here because of Hera, if she hadn't intervened I would never have even known this place existed. I mean, it's great now, but I don't want to be tied here for the next ten years, unless I get a quest. What if I want to see my mom? Do you know how   
long it has been? She is going to kill me!"

Reyna smiles. "You get regularly scheduled leave, all you have to do is tell me your reason. You could even ask if your mother would like to move to New Rome, I'm sure. And you have proved yourself as a capable Roman hero. Or do you not want that honor?"

"I do, I just meant." He pauses. "What do you mean 'regularly scheduled leave'?"

"Regularly scheduled leave. You will get a week or two, depending on where you plan to go, and you may do whatever you want once you are on leave."

Percy's eyes widen.  
Octavian pipes up then. "I've never used my leave, I can nicely ask Reyna to add it to yours if you stop bothering me every five seconds."

Reyna smiles. "Mmhmm." Jason thinks. "Most of my leave was never used, either."

Octavian nods. Percy looks like he's about to cry. "Can I- may I- two weeks- Mom? It's been. It's been at least a year, she completely missed my last birthday."

Reyna nods. "Of course. You'll need to wait a few months or so before you can have another leave, but you should be fine."

He nods, then takes a deep breath. "Um, how," he coughs. "How soon?"

"As soon as the conversation ends."

Percy goes and wraps her in a hug, unable to actually say anything at the moment, before literally sprinting away.

Reyna tenses, before relaxing after he's gone. Jason laughs at her.

Octavian frowns. "So we have a week to get used to things before he comes back, and the same thing happens again? This seems counterproductive."

"We could go with him. Octavian can use my leave." Jason offers.

"I do not want to leave." Octavian narrows his eyes. "How about we postpone the schedule until the day before he returns?"

Jason nods.

Octavian smiled at Reyna. "Thank you, again. What ever would we do without you?"

Reyna snorts. "You'd all be dead."

"Your wisdom cannot be contested." Octavian replies. "Now, who would like to go with me to get some wine? I feel some Cabernet Sauvignon would be perfect right about now."

Nico raises his hand, and Jason just starts heading toward the house. Alcohol is a no-go.

Octavian lights up. "You like wine?" He asks.

"I'm Italian! Of course I do." Nico rolls his eyes, but he smiles a little.

Octavian looks like he has seen the pure form of a god and lived to tell about it.

Nico just smiles. "Well, are you going to lead the way, or are we just going to stand on Reyna's front porch all day?"

Octavian stood and smiled at Reyna before hurrying to Nico. "Come, come."

Nico lets himself be lead. He ends up pulling out his Mythomagic deck out, and simply shuffling the cards. He'd taken both it and Magic the Gathering up, again, since he had the time to.

Octavian glances over. "What are those?"

Nico looks up, and smiles a little self-consciously. "They're, um, Mythomagic."

"I was into them when I was young, before." Octavian shook his head. "I couldn't remember to play if I tried."

Nico nods. "I got into it while Bianca and I were in the casino, but I dropped it after..."

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to."

Nico shook his head. "No, it's fine. She died when I was nine, on a quest with Percy. That's why I have Hazel now; Bianca chose rebirth, and Hazel's just as important to me as Bianca ever was."

Octavian nodded. "I don't entirely understand, but I won't lie and say that I do."

Nico nods. "Thank you. Mythomagic was really important to me, and I've only just gotten back into it; I burned all my old cards."

Octavian shuddered at the thought.

Nico sighed. "I'm also looking into a similar game, Magic the Gathering. Have you heard of it?"

"Possibly?" Octavian shrugs.

Nico smiles. "I was thinking of seeing if Jason would like to learn it with me, but he doesn't always understand strategy. At least not in non-life-threatening situations."

"I could try to learn if you teach me." Octavian offered.

Nico's smile widens. "I'm not sure how good at teaching I'll be, but I can try. It'll be fun."

Octavian nodded. "Yeah, it will be."

Nico smiled. He'd kind of always wanted to make a friend in this way; someone who would be able to play a game with him. He didn't know many people who played Mythomagic, or Magic the Gathering(Anubis didn't count, he was a god and a cheat). 

Octavian smiled at Nico. "Why don't we just go back to the house, I have wine there."

Nico nods. "Alright."

Octavian leads Nico back to the house quickly, passing Percy on the way in.

Jason is already there, sitting on the couch watching Supernatural season one(the wendigo episode) and eating a grilled cheese sandwich.

The moment Octavian hears the creepy noise, he takes Nico straight back to the kitchen.

All Nico hears is the dulcet notes of something big and scary being set on fire. Jason hasn't noticed that they came back.

Octavian pours a very tall glass of wine, waving to the cabinet. "Take whatever you like."

Nico pours himself a small glass, as well. He glances at Jason. "What's he watching?" He asks.

"I do not know and I will not." Octavian tips his head back as he takes a huge gulp of wine.

Nico hums, taking a sip of his own. "This is good."   
The episode ends, and Jason gets up to put his plate away. He sees the two of them, and apologizes to Octavian for the show, he's just re-watching it.

Octavian leans up to kiss Jason's cheek. "It's fine, really."

Jason shakes his head. "I know you hate scary things, and horror, and the early seasons of this show are really kinda horrific, I should've left a sign on the door or something."

"Stop, it's fine. Shouldn't I be apologizing to you for the past few weeks?"

Jason shrugged. "It's okay. We already talked about it, it's over."

"But I haven't made it up yet." Octavian frowns. "And it really was a tradition of ours."

Jason shrugged. "We can do that later, you and Nico should bond, it's good for all of us to become friends before we do anything else." He smiles.

"Well," Octavian looks at Nico. "I'm a veteran of Mythomagic and need to be shown the ropes again, Nico and I were talking about me learning again."

"Oh cool, is that the thing with the figurines?" He looks at Nico for confirmation, and the younger boy nods.

"I never invested in figurines." Octavian looked back at Nico. "But in my old home I had this huge box of cards and dice, all in sleeves and smaller boxes. It was actually pretty strange."

Nico smiled. "I did. I had just about every one of them, too." He frowns at the second part of that sentence. "Weird."

"I had a lot of the cards. In fact, I'm sure that if I really needed to, I could get them."

Nico pulls out his figurine, the Hades one he wears around his neck. "I don't have any of my old ones, I melted them in a fit of grief, actually, but Percy gave me this one of my dad." Jason asks if he can take it, looking it over.

Octavian reaches over to touch the figurine, his fingers brushing Jason's skin, but then there's a loud noise and a flash of light, and suddenly he is on the floor in the place he's only seen once before, kneeling before Kymopoleia.

Jason is there as well, blinking and tense. "Wh-what...?"

Octavian looks up at the goddess, her figure framed by the shimmering light in the underwater cave. "Yes, my lady?" He says politely. She replies, just as politely, "Have you begun my temples? The others that you promised?"

"Temples? What?" Jason looks at Octavian for more information, confused and worried.

"The dawn of the attack by Gaea, Kymopoleia pulled me from the field to have a chat with me. She wished to bounce some ideas off me, since I called myself Pontifex at the time. I promised her recognition and temples in her honor. I was returned just in time to see the explosion of the onager's load against the earth mother, and I have to say, I was unprepared for that."

Jason nods. "Oh, okay. And temples... Would it just be you, my lady? Or would we be able to make temples for all of the gods?"

"All of the unrecognized gods and goddesses." Octavian nods.

Jason nods. "Both Greek and Roman, right? Ooh, that'd be interesting." He grins.

Octavian nods, and Kymopoleia shrinks so she is only a head taller than them. "What have you worked on so far?" Octavian starts to say something, but then he shakes his head. "I admit, I forgot the ordeal in the midst of it all."

Jason nods a little. "A lot has happened. But! I can help. I can talk to Annabeth about building Temples in Camp Half-Blood, you're first of course, and stuff. Or well, you can, Octavian." Jason stops making plans, realizing it would be better to let Octavian call the shots, since it's Octavian's job.

"I don't know if me proposing anything would go well, the majority still distrust me." Octavian looked at one of the stalactites protruding from a circle of glittering water.

"I could do it. Though, this job would make more sense for a pontifex, and Rey-rey won't let you be both that and the Augur."

"I don't want to give that up." Octavian says defensively. "I've had the position for five years."

Jason frowns. "But you don't really need it, I mean, Dephic Oracle is pretty much dead, and your sacrifices haven't been telling you anything, right? Plus like, Apollo's in deep shit."

"I would still feel better."

Jason shakes his head. "But you don't even do anything! You're wasting your time with the whole teddy bear thing!"

"It is not wasting my time!" Octavian hisses. "You have got to be kidding me."

"It is! Delphi itself was lost in the war, Gaea raised that one snake and Apollo is currently in so much trouble he probably won't get to fixing that until the next /century/. And honestly I'd prefer it if you were pontifex, it makes you job easier you just have to oversee the worship of the gods it's not even difficult. I could do it."

Octavian looked away, wrapping his arms around himself. "Fine. If you insist."

Jason nods. "I do. It'll be better for you, plus any time someone wants to worship the gods they'd come to you. You like bossing people around, right?"

"I do," He admits.

Jason nods. "Yeah!" He makes to clap Octavian on the shoulder, but pauses, holding up the figurine. "Oh, I forgot I had this."

Kym's eyes widen. "What is that?"

"Oh, um, this is a figurine from a game Nico likes, it's of Hades."

"Figurine? I want one. I would look good like that. I want one of myself." She looks at Octavian expectantly. He nods. "Yes ma'am."

"We could talk to the owners of Mythomagic..." Jason mutters, not sure how to go about it.

"I could buy Mythomagic." Octavian corrects.

Jason blinks. "Can we give it to Nico for Christmas?"

"Would I still be able to do what I need?" He asks.

Jason nods. "Yeah, sure."

"Then I guess."

Jason nods. "Great."

Octavian looks back at the goddess. "Have you been well?" She nods, and waves her hand at him. "Go back, and make sure I get my recognition. I was lenient this time, I will not be this patient next time." Then Octavian and Jason are sent back home.

Jason blinks, and they're back in the kitchen doorway. Nico is in the middle of _finally making his goddamned grilled cheese_ when they appear, and almost hits Jason with the just-off-the-griddle sandwich.

Octavian hands Nico back the figurine without missing a beat, and goes to go get a glass of wine.

Nico hooks the little Hades back onto his necklace, and goes to the table. Jason blinks.

Octavian tips his head back, the liquor disappearing down his throat easily.

Jason smiles. "So uh. Are you going to start doing what Kymo... er... what she wanted?"

"Not this moment." Octavian rolls his eyes.

Jason sighs. "Well you should. You're lucky she didn't smite you!"

"She was nicer when you were there."

"I have that effect on people, and you naturally counteract it. You should at least be making plans. And did you put anything in your pocket? There's something sticking out."

Octavian reached down and pulled a handful of notecards out. There was a note on top- "those letters you asked for". 

He smiles. "I can use these."

"Uh-huh." Jason raised his eyebrows. "Also, are you going to tell Rey-rey about your job switch, or am I?"

"You do it, I don't think I can."

"Sure thing" Jason smiles. "I can do that. Talk to Nico about the one thing while I'm gone?"

"The thing?" Octavian asks. "Which thing?"

Jason mimes tugging a necklace, before heading out the door with a grin.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kymopleia has a large headcanon family for Octavian and if you want to know about it you can ask

"Alright, that." Octavian turns back to Nico and smiles. "Tell me about your figurines."

Nico glances up from his cheese. "Uh. Like the one I have or the mythomagic figurines in general?"

"Mythomagic figurines, yes. All kinds of them. A goddess has employed me- and now Jason- to make her more widely known, and one way to do that is through various games and whatnot."

"Oh, ok. Mythomagic figurines correspond with the cards, they help make the game more immersive, more real if you will. Sometimes they even have stats or the name of the character on the bottom, or the maker. The Hades figurine I have has Hephaestus's mark, since it was found in his graveyard."

Octavian nods. "Is the figurine accurate?"

"To some extent. I don't have the others, but Hades' has his helmet, his cloak of souls, and the face, what we can see, looks somewhat accurate."

"What is your opinion of the endeavor we have taken? We are to get every unrecognized god and goddess in the Greek and roman pantheons a temple and shrine."

"Oh, is that what you're doing? Percy tried to do something similar a couple years ago, but it didn't work. Good luck."

"He did not fully commit, he had other obligations- we spoke of it before." He doesn't mention that they were cuddling at the time. He figures it's implied."

Nico hummed. "He did fix the claiming thing, which is good. We'll see how long it lasts."

Octavian nods. "Even though the claiming deal didn't spread to us, I can understand why it is a good thing."

"Sorry, we didn't know you existed." Nico shrugged. "I learned only a few months before the others did, on accident. I mentioned that earlier."

"Didn't you stumble into camp with Hazel Levesque, stinking of the underworld?" Octavian asks.

"Yes. I found her in Asphodel, after I learned my other sister, my... Bianca, she chose rebirth, I stumbled upon Hazel in Asphodel, and I knew she was my sister, just... not quite the same as me. I learned she was Roman, and guessed my way into camp." He grins a little, scratching at the back of his neck. "I really had no idea what I was doing, but I managed to get here and convince you all I was a messenger from Pluto. An ambassador."

"The stuffed zebras convinced me, though I didn't trust your intentions." Octavian replies, tone nearing fondness.

Nico smiled. "Oh yeah, I nearly forgot those. I've always hated zebras."

"They were on hand at the time, and their stuffed innards told me you were to be admitted into camp and trusted. I personally acted on the first half, Reyna acted on both."

Nico smiles. "Yeah. Reyna's really great, and Jason was pretty cool, too. Didn't know either of them very well, but they were really nice whenever I visited here."

"Was I the biggest bitch you've ever met?" Octavian asks.

Nico blinked. "I've spent time in Persephone's personal quarters."

Octavian rolled his eyes. "The biggest mortal bitch?"

"Hmm. Drew Tanaka would be a better candidate. You're actually pretty nice, compared to her. At least when it comes to me."

"I must find her and become bitch friends with her." Octavian replies, completely straight faced.

"She was the Aphrodite cabin's head, before Piper and after Selina Beauregard. She should probably be at Camp Half-Blood."

Octavian crossed his arms. "I have no reason to go to the greacus camp." He sighs.

"If you want to meet her then either find some reason for her to come here or go there. I do need to stop by the camp sometime, the Hades cabin needs to be redecorated. Again."

"Can you send a summons to her when you go?" Octavian asked. "I need more bitch friends. They are a staple in my life- like wine, or Denny, or Jason. I do not function well without them."

"She won't listen to me. She's made her feelings on what she calls 'fashion disasters' very clear. You should get Jason to ask. Piper said Drew flirted with him a lot."

"You could make it clear that the summons isn't from yourself, and you could change your style, perhaps." Octavian looks him over. "It is rather unfortunate."

Nico glares. "I'm the son of Hades and I will dress like I want to. And she literally won't listen to a word I say. So ask Jason or Percy. She'll at least pretend to listen if they talk to her."

Octavian sighed and nodded. "Alright."

"I don't see why you don't wanna go to Camp Half-blood, either. Like, half the people here don't like you, but almost the entire Camp over there has no idea who you are."

"This is my home, I have lived here my whole life. My only family lives here, and any semblance of a group of friends reside here too. If I left this..." He trails off, shaking his head.

"Well, okay. but you can still visit other places. And aren't you planning to build temples at CHB?"

"I think it would be better for Jason to do that." He says quietly. "My influence isn't what it used to be."

Nico frowns. "Well, you're gonna be the one to make plans for the temples, right? Shouldn't you check out the land around it to figure out where they would go and all of that? Plus Chiron will want to talk to you, to know what you're doing, and Jason isn't the best at explaining extremely detailed plans."

"Jason can take it, I can send notes with him that he can offer Chiron. It will be fine."

"Are you sure? Because I'd think you'd want to do this yourself." Nico frowns. "Why don't you want to go to Camp Half-Blood?"

"It's- it isn't the camp. Not just that." Octavian looks back at Nico, finally. "I don't want to leave the city."

"What? Why?" Nico is confused.

"You'll think it's a stupid reason." Octavian remembers his full wineglass, and sips at it.

Nico frowns. "If you believe it, and it seems valid to you, then there's no reason for me to think it's stupid. Just explain to me, and if I can, I'll try and tell you why you're wrong."

"When I was young, I idolized Julius Ceasar and all of the great roman leaders. I found out that Julius was murdered, and ever since I've had this phobia of it. Not the dying part, I care little of that, it's the betrayal of a group of people in such a large way that I fear. And somewhere along the way, I decided that New Rome was safe. Idiotic, I know?" He shakes his head. "But I'm stuck on this, and even though I know better, I can't bring myself to leave. The Gaea war was different, I was fueled by righteous anger and a need for retribution then." He looks at Nico. "Basically, I have an idea stuck in my head and because of it, I keep myself here."

Nico nods slowly. "I understand. It might also be a way for you to cope, since a good number of the people you interact with aren't actual friends of yours and are more like... employees. They aren't necessarily loyal to you. And honestly, I think a good way to make you more comfortable with leaving New Rome would be to start small. Just leave the perimeter and slowly get farther away until you've convinced yourself you can. Forcing yourself to move around without taking your fears into account would just hurt you."

"Your suggestion is taking it slow?" Octavian says slowly, making sure he understands.

Nico nods.

Octavian lets out a breathy sigh of relief. "You know, I never even told Jason that."

"I don't know why you didn't, I'm pretty sure he'd say the same thing I did."

"Any time I got uncomfortable and clammed up, he didn't push. He never pushed- and pushing got me nowhere. Imagine dating someone for years, and not knowing their favorite color. Their favorite song. I admit, how I went about things was wrong, but everything other than the sex was impersonal and polite, or atleast it felt that way. I was tired of it. And this phobia, it isn't the sort of thing to outright say in the middle of conversation, and no conversation built up to the point where I was comfortable telling him that."

Nico sighed. "Jason doesn't really know how to talk about himself. From what Piper told me, he really doesn't talk about himself unless he's scared. And then most of it is 'what if I mess up?' 'what did I do wrong?' 'what am I supposed to do if this happens?' and stuff. It's kinda like he doesn't exist outside of his relationships. It's weird."

"He is ridiculously codependent." Octavian agrees. "Jason is the type of person who needs a network of people supporting him. I know I'm not enough, not the right kind of support. But the columns do not pick which roof they support." He tips the wineglass back as he finishes its contents.

"Yeah. And apparently they met his mother. Or what was left of her, on the trip to Athens. It really messed him up for a while there. But he pulled through, did you notice?"

"He did." Octavian nods. "I'm afraid I will just hinder him. I'm honored he cares so much, and feel much the same way, but I don't know if this is a good thing. I mean, what am I doing in the middle of this? You three are demigod children of the three brothers who rule the earth's three realms. I am a legacy of Apollo and others who nearly caused a war, which was only prevented by my not being there."

"Well, you're extremely important to both Percy and Jason, and I think you're pretty cool, from what I know about you, so. You're just important to us. Plus Percy has pissed off the gods twice as many times as he's helped them, there's no reason to feel bad about that."

Octavian snorts at that. "My only offense was praising Apollo and promising him shrines and temples, and the blemish of my part in the Gaea war. By the way, Bryce Lawrence. Tell me how he died. I would love to hear the details, he deserved it.

Nico clams up, biting his lip hard. "I. I don't remember." He glances away.

Octavian realizes his error. "Sorry. Who would remember? I may have been his patron, but I was far from willing to save him from himself."

"Reyna or coach Hedge. Coach is probably busy with his kid, so. Ask Reyna."

"I can speak to her soon." He smiles. "So," he starts to speak more, but a ringing interrupts him. He picks up the house phone, listens for a moment, then goes pale(er), and sprints in the opposite direction, dropping the glass on the floor.

Nico runs after him, worried. They pass Jason on his way back from talking with Reyna, and he runs after Octavian. From what Nico remembers how Octavian's face looked, he doesn't blame the other boy.

Octavian doesn't stop until he reaches Terminus, and then he only pauses to breathlessly hold up a hand and push his hair out of his face, and it isn't clear if he's crying or not, but Terminus nods him through and he starts jogging in the direction of the hospital.

Nico skids to a stop in front of Terminus, handing the god his switchblade- the form his Stygian Iron sword takes when not in use- and heading after Octavian. Jason runs after them, clearly not holding any weapons of his own.

When Octavian reached the roman hospital, he nearly trips about a million different times before he enters and runs through the building. The staff all know him well, from all of his frequent visits over the years, and don't stop him. He finally reached the room and leans against the doorway, gasping for breath. Inside the room is a hearty, raspy laugh. "Boy, did I tell you it was urgent? You ran all the way here, didn't you?" A loud voice says. He nods, and moves inside to collapse in a chair next to the bed.

Nico skids into the room, and Jason barely manages to stop before he barrels Nico over.

Octavian is still fighting to get his breath in order as he takes the woman on the bed's hand. She is hooked up to some machines which do absolutely nothing to keep her from looking like she is about to snap a branch off of the nearest tree and beat someone half to death with it. Her hair is a short tangle of pale grayish blonde, and her eyes are a sharp blue- the kind of blue that Octavian had always wanted to have. Her nose is small, even with the tubes going into it, and her lips are pursed as though she is mad at Octavian, or atleast exasperated. She looks at the newcomers, and rolls her eyes. "Care to introduce me? You never bring your beasts around anymore." Octavian nods, but is still too out of breath to get words out.

Nico smiles, a little breathlessly, and bows. "My name is Nico di Angelo, and this is Jason Grace. Hi."

Octavian offers him a small smile, and the woman beckons for them all to come into the room and close the door. "I am Elle, Octavian's grandmother. Call me Elle. If you call me Grandma or Mama or Mammy or Grams, I'll give you the worst whooping you've had in your whole life. Who are your godly parents or whatever?"

Jason blinks. "My father is Jupiter, Madame." Nico nods. "Mine is Had- er... Pluto?"

"A Greek, are you?" She asks. "My father was better in his Greek form, trust me. Son of a Titan then, was he." She sighs as if remembering the good old days, as if she's as ancient as the roman camp sometimes feels. "And both sons of the big three?" She hoots and squeezes Octavian's hand. "Hoped he'd end up with someone strong. He needs it." Octavian blushes slightly, which is a strange look on him. Strange, but reassuring and good.

Jason nods. "There's uh, Percy too. His father is Poseidon. He left to see his mother this morning." Nico frowns. "Your father?"

"All three? You dog." She takes the time to address and grin at her grandson before nodding at Nico. "Yes, Cupid." Octavian grabs her necklace from the bedside table, and tries to put it on her. She shakes her hand and pushes his hand away. "Yours now. You need the luck of it."

Nico blanches, and he feels Jason tense beside him. Cupid was Eros's roman form. And she said Eros was better?

Elle, focusing on Octavian at the moment, nods as he motions to put the necklace on himself. She nods. "That's the reason I survived this long boy, you better wrap that chain around your throat and keep it there. And don't you dare try to tell me not to give it to you, alright?" Octavian nods and looks anywhere but his boyfriends as he reaches back to do the clasp. It's hard to see, but the pendant is a tiny putti with a bow and arrow and heart shaped quiver. The quiver is obnoxiously large, and not quite attached to the Cupid figure, and is actually more of a locket. Octavian knows that inside are pictures of himself and his grandfather, Vesuvius.

Jason claps a hand on Nico's shoulder. Elle isn't her father, and it's better if they don't talk about it in front of her, her health is clearly not the best.

Octavian says a few things to Elle in low tones before getting up and leading the others into the hallway. "Jason. I want- I need to move back with my grandmother. I know you've said no in years past but this is important. She's in there like this at the moment because she tripped on the step up to the shrine for her father." He knows he never told Jason why he needed to move, and not explaining isn't painting him in a good light for Nico, but he doesn't completely care.

Jason blinks. "I didn't say no. I said you could when you could take Medea there yourself."

"And I've had something near a phobia to her for years." Octavian crosses his arms, the new pendant shimmering in the light. "You've never even seen her home. It's huge and done in the old roman style, and there's a huge eel tank in the impluvium- and the frescos." He shakes his head. "It's gorgeous. Unlike Elle's health."

Jason spreads his hands. "I like the house, but if you want to move then take Medea. I promised we'd move when you can do it, and you know how I am about promises."

Octavian bites his lip. "Where is the starting point for carrying her."

"Sitting next to her and letting her climb you."

"No matter where that is?" He asks.

He nods. "Yeah."

Octavian glances back at the door to Elle's room. "I... I guess."

Jason just smiles. Nico frowns. "Yeah, okay. What about Percy? He's in New York for two weeks. Should we really move without him?"

"I will put in a two month notice on the house, when he gets there his things will be there, along with directions to Elle's." Octavian says. "Besides, if it's that inconvenient, I could transfer the ownership to you. Do you have papers?"

"Papers?"

"ID, birth certificate, proof of citizenship?" Octavian proposes.

"Uh. I was 9, when dad put us in the Casino. If any of those things existed, and given what I remember of my childhood there's a good chance they don't, I wouldn't have them."

Octavian frowns. "That's no good, how am I supposed to set you up in the stock market if you're not legal?" He shakes his head. "I need to borrow you one day this week, I can get you papers, one of my clients are fantastic at it. And, she owes me."

Nico looks at Jason, who shrugs.

"You're looking at him as if going to get the papers with me is a bad idea." Octavian says.

"I'm worried about the friend." Nico admits.

"She's fine, really! This is a much better alternative." He assures Nico.

Nico blinks. "Oh.... kay..."

Octavian turns to go back into the room, but pauses, due to a doctor being in the way. It's not one he's familiar with, and he immediately tenses.

Jason pats Nico's shoulder, and goes to Octavian. "Is everything alright?" He addresses both the doctor and Octavian himself.

"None of you three signed in, and it is not visiting hours right now." The doctor says. Octavian stares at him for a moment before he clenches his fists. "Now, you must not have worked here long." He starts. "I have been in and out of those doors since before I can remember, and that is my grandmother- my only living relative, mind you, in that room. I am Octavian, auger of the twelfth legion, and if you think something as stupid as time will get in the way of me seeing my grandmother, you are _wrong_." The last word has so much venom in it that it is nearly tangible.

Jason coughs. "Officially you're High Pontifex, now, Octavian."

"And do you know who stands behind high pontifex?" Octavian hisses at the doctor. He's gone before Octavian can be corrected or even answer the question.

Jason laughs. "I didn't know I missed seeing you intimidate people."

Octavian glances back at him, and a smile starts. "Yet you refuse to let me torture enemies of the state?"

"What happens if we need those 'enemies of the state' to be our allies later? Torturing them won't help them trust us if we require aid."

"Enemies of the state are not meant to be allies." Octavian replies, as if it is simple, common knowledge

"Things change. People change. You know that." Jason huffs at him. "Anyone has the ability to do good, for themselves and the legion."

Octavian crosses his arms. "I won't even permanently scar them. They will learn their lessons and then I will be done with it."

"Torturing them doesn't usually help the situation! In fact, usually all it does is hurt people. Intimidation is one thing, but outright torturing a person isn't something we should do. I'm not going to back down on this, Octavian."

"Fine, then why can't I intimidate them?" He asks stubbornly. "You already say I keep people uneasy."

"I don't remember saying you can't." Jason answered.

Octavian frowns, opens his mouth, then closes it again. "I could have sworn."

Jason spreads his hands. "I don't remember saying it. So you can. Have fun."

Octavian bounced on his heels, leaning up to kiss Jason's cheek. He looks back at Nico, who has been quiet since he talked about getting him legal. "It's close to dinner time, why don't you two go back to the house?"

Nico blinked. "Uh, okay. Sure." Jason nods. "Sure thing. See you." He kisses Octavian's hair before walking out of the room with Nico.

Octavian stands in the hallway alone, waiting until they leave before he goes back in to Elle. She watches him approach, and pats the bed. "Wasn't that the boy who you didn't trust and the boy who left you?" Octavian sighs as he sits and explains.


	9. Chapter 9

Jason wakes up at 2 in the morning, every morning, to pee, and to get a snack. As he's heading to the kitchen, Fluffy growls, or he things it's Fluffy. Jason goes to investigate.

Octavian knows it's irrational- Jason is a big, strong roman who can take good damn care of himself, but he has this habit of trying to be awake when Jason gets back from the bathroom each night. He wakes when Jason climbs out of bed, and sits up with closed or nearly closed eyes until he comes back. But something feels wrong tonight, when he sits back up from having slouched down while waiting, and glances at the clock to find it four am. Ten minutes? That's easy. But two hours? There was a problem. And, since Octavian knows he didn't initiate it, there's an even bigger problem.

Nico feels something is wrong when he goes to sleep that night. But he doesn't know what, and he thinks, perhaps, that all will be well in the morning. But he can't fall asleep, and by four in the morning, he's had enough of sitting around. So he peeks into Jason and Octavian's room, hoping to speak to either of them.

Octavian is sitting there trying to will himself to get up from the covers. No matter what trouble the son of Jupiter has gotten into, the blankets are comfortable as hell. "Nico?" He asks.

Nico looks at him, frowning. He looks more his age than he's looked in years. "Did you feel like... something wrong would happen tonight?"

"Yeah. I mean, I usually wait up for Jason to come back, but. He didn't." Octavian looks worriedly to the door.

Nico's eyebrows furrow. "Where'd he go?"

"Bathroom. Every morning, two am. No exceptions." Octavian says as if it's obvious.

Nico blinks. "Huh. Well, he wasn't in there when I passed it to come by. Should we see if Percy's seen him? Or Reyna?"

Octavian nodded, finally getting up.

Nico smiles a little. "Waking Percy up can be really hard, but it's always good to have help." He waves for Octavian to follow him to Percy's room.

"What do we do?" He asks.

"The fastest ways are to dump some water on him or make him fall off the bed."

Octavian smiles and grabs an amphora, done in the ancient style and signed by the lar who made the original. Inside are a bundle of lilacs and two gallons of water.

Nico smiles. He knocks on the door, and when no answer comes from within, he pushes the door open.

Octavian grabs the lilacs and hands them to Nico, passing him on his way into the room. When presented with the mildly nude Percy Jackson, he smiles and tips the amphora so that the water all flows out and onto him.

Nico snickers, grinning behind the flowers he holds in front of his face.

Percy sits up, gasping like a fish out of water, which is ironic, considering the situation.

Nico laughs harder, doubling over with mirth.

Octavian snorts, and Percy narrows his eyes. "Ass. Hole. Mother. Fucker. Fuck. Fuck. Uuuugggghhh" he goes to lay back down, but Octavian pulls him back up.

Nico sobers a little. "Jason's missing."

Percy looks at Nico in confusion. "What?"

"He's missing. I felt something bad was gonna happen and Octavian said Jason hadn't come back."

"Where did he go?" Percy asks.  
"Bathroom." Octavian replies, going to grab one of Percy's shirts and throw it at him.

Nico sighs. "I passed it earlier, he wasn't there. We don't know where he went, so we wanted to know if you might."

"Why would I know? Hera didn't switch us again, and I haven't seen him. Did see a hot guy on my way back from a midnight snack, but I think that was a dream. No one that hot would be sitting in our living room."

Nico frowns. "What did he look like?" even if It was a dream, demigod dreams tended to be foreshadowing for important events.

"He had like dark skin, sorta smelled like New Mexico, and had a wooden club/sword thing with black chunks on the side. It was cool. And he had this red braided headband, which was weird. And there were flowers on his shirt?"

Nico frowned. He'd never met anyone who sounded like that. But the weapon sounded similar to that one Athena girl Jason had been kidnapped with- Oh.

Octavian studies Nico's face. "What?"

"While Jason and I were on our trip, the last day in fact, Jason and another demigod, a daughter of Athena whose name I don't know, were kidnapped. According to Jason they were to 'virgin sacrifices'." The sword Percy described sounded like the one the girl had when they escaped."

Percy blinked. "He said something about a step pyramid in the middle of the desert."

"Shit."

"He might have left his stuff in the living room, he seriously did not care."

Nico shook his head. "Percy, Jason's going to be sacrificed by some... thing. Whatever that guy was."

"He seemed to be, like, arguing with himself? Maybe?" Percy shrugged. "Besides. Step pyramid in a desert. That isn't hard."

"There are hundreds of them in Mexico and South America."

"But he said it was in America." Percy corrected. "And I have heard of about one. Sort of."

Nico raises his eyebrows. "Uh-huh. Which one is that?"

"New Mexico, tiny town called- Brillo? Berillo? They have barely a thousand people, and lots of brokeback mountain reenactments on the step pyramid." He shudders as he remembers.

Nico blinks. "Okay. That's a place to start. We should check with Annabeth and see if that one girl went missing too, if not then to keep an eye on her, since she'd probably be next."

Octavian, who hadn't been saying anything, twists the ring on his right ring finger. "Good luck finding him. Or them. Whichever." Percy looks at him in surprise. "You aren't coming?" Octavian shakes his head.

Nico pats Octavian's shoulder. "Baby steps."

Percy looks between them suspiciously. "Octavian, talk to Reyna in the morning. Nico, you and me need some serious NyQuil and we need to sleep."

"I can't sleep. That's why I'm up. I knew something was wrong and I haven't been able-" He yawns, and blinks a few times. "-to fall asleep."

Percy holds his arms open. "I sleep better with someone in the room." Octavian starts for the door.

Nico wavers a little, and blinks. "You're wet."

"I can get dry easy." Percy shivers, and then the water kind of rolls off of him.

Nico wrinkles his nose. "Your bed is still wet."

"Then your bed. Something."

"Okay." Nico turns and walks toward his room, yawning.

Percy follows him like a puppy, not even caring why Octavian walked out. He sees the light under Octavian and Jason's room is on, and taps on Nico's shoulder. "Should all three of us?" He asks, on a whim. Normally it takes him and hour and a half of good sex to consider cuddling up to the auger, but he doesn't think that he could do that tonight.

Nico frowns. "I dunno. He might prefer to be alone."

"But he and Jason are always cuddling, and it isn't just Jason starting it." Percy reminds Nico.

"Well, yeah. But this is the second time Jason's gone missing. Maybe he wants to be alone to deal with it."

Percy nods. "Fine. Now, cuddling."

Nico opens the door to his room, and crawls into the bed that makes him look twice as small as he usually does. Cuddling with Percy should be fine.

Percy flops onto the bed, groaning loudly. He looks at Nico from the corner of his eyes, and grins goofily.

Nico rolls his eyes at Percy, but he's smiling a little. Maybe.

"Niiiiccooooo." Percy mumbles, all dragged out. "Pull the covers over us and cuddle with meeeeeee."

Nico huffs, and grabs the edge of the comforter, and cocoons himself in it, rolling so he's next to Percy. "Get your own blanket."

"Be my blanket." Percy replies, wrapping an around burr-nico,

Nico grunts.

Percy closes his eyes. "What's Octavian's deal? Why won't he come with? His boyfriend too."

"Octavian's problems and fears are his to share at his leisure. I know what it's like for people to share my secrets when I didn't want them told, and I'm not going to betray his trust, even if we're both in a committed relationship with him."

Percy sighed, starting to calm down. "Let me know, is it me? Do I have anything to do with it?"

"No, it's not you."

Percy nods. "Good."

Nico smiles a little sleepily, yawning.

Percy snuggles his face into Nico's shoulder.

Nico smiles sleepily. "'M glad you don't hate me."

"Why would I hate you?" Percy asks.

"I tricked you, in the Underworld. 'nd I lied 'bout the camps, after I found Hazel, 'nd I lied about not knowing you."

"I don't hate you for all that." Percy shakes his head. "I care 'bout you, okay? Even before this. Just in a different way."

Nico mumbles intelligibly, nodding. "I'm glad you don't hate me." He repeats, still smiling. He probably wouldn't be talking like this, about these things, if he weren't so tired.

Percy kisses something- possibly his neck, possibly his shoulder, as he starts to drift.

Nico cuddles up a bit more, and sighs. He's asleep in a few minutes.

Percy falls asleep too, and doesn't have any dreams.

Nico's dreams are like they always are. Dark, suspense-filled, and terrifying. He doesn't really show it, though. You get used to it.

The next morning, Octavian has made omelettes and mystery fish sandwiches. Percy hovers with a hand over one for a good three minutes before he decides against it.

Nico takes the sandwich, because he trusts Octavian won't kill him. They don't taste bad.

Octavian has a good six piled on his plate, and another four on a plate for Percy and Nico. He doesn't normally eat this much, but he's tired from a long night of fitful sleep and he might be stress eating.

Nico takes a second sandwich, and begins thinking about what they have to do. There's no telling how long the ceremony is, but it probably won't be very long. They have no way of knowing if they'll be able to get to Jason in time.

"I talked to Reyna." Octavian says quietly. "You leave at noon."

Nico nods. "Got it. Do they have that Athena girl, or...?"

"They do. She is now under permanent watch until further notice." Percy gets up to go shower.

Nico nods. "Okay. I'll look into step pyramids in New Mexico, and uh... well, why don't you work on that stuff for that goddess? Like plan temples and stuff."

Octavian nods. "I learned Annabeth has a passion and skill for architecture, she agreed to construct and temples I plan."

"She's really into architecture, yeah. The Gods even had her rebuild Olympus, after the Titan War"

"Then there should be no complaint from the gods and goddesses."

Nico nods. "Yep. Good luck anyway." He smiles.

"Thank you." Octavian picks up a sandwich. "Did you enjoy yours?"

"I like it." Nico nods, smiling.

"It's eel, seaweed, mayonnaise, salt, and tomato." Octavian smiled. "One of the very few things I can cook."

Nico nods. "I like it. I can make cheese and pasta. I don't really have much experience with anything else, though."

"Cheese is good, but tastes... Wrong with eel." Octavian shakes his head.

Nico frowns. "Then you haven't been using the cheese correctly. Cheese goes great with everything."

"I have tried every eel, every cheese. They tasted wrong together."

"You weren't using the cheese correctly."

"Trust me." Octavian replies. "Eel and cheese taste wrong together.

Nico huffs. He clearly didn't believe Octavian, but would let the matter drop for now.

Octavian knows that what he is saying is true from years of experience.

Nico finishes his sandwich and heads off to do research.

Octavian returns to his own sandwiches, sketching out some ideas on the napkin.

Once Nico has gathered all the information he can, he goes to Percy and knock on the door frame of the room he's in. "Hey."

Percy has his bag over one shoulder, and riptide in his pocket. "Mhm?"

"Did you wanna do this the fast way or the slow way?" Nico's mostly rested, at least, as rested as he can be, and this'll be a big jump if they decide to go fast, but. They should be fine.

"Fast would be best for Jason." Percy says. "Are we leaving right now, or are we going to say last goodbyes to Octavian?"

"Did you want to say last goodbyes to Octavian?" Nico's eyebrows go up. Of course, he himself had already bid Octavian goodbye, and good luck, but.

"Well, it's not like we're going to be seeing him for a while. And he's like, alone now." Percy rationalized. "What is he even going to do?"

"He was commissioned by a Goddess to build a bunch of temples. One for every god, especially the minor ones. He's got plenty to do while we're gone."

Percy thought for a moment. "You're right. Still." He shakes his head. "Let's just go."

Nico nods, before motioning Percy closer. "Come here, we'll see how close I can get us without knowing the geography first-hand."

Percy came closer, and wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders.

Nico grabbed Percy's wrist, mostly to be sure he wouldn't lose hold of the taller boy, and pulled them into the shadows. They ended up in front of a large building, maybe a mall.

Percy nearly stumbles, but catches himself. "Whoa. I have no idea where we are."

"Bernalillo County..." Nico mumbles, starting to slump forward. It took a lot of concentration and energy to get here, and he was feeling the effects.

Percy shifts his grip down to Nico's waist, pulling him against his side. "Whoa, let's get a hotel room for you to sleep, okay?"

"Mmhmm." Nico leans on him, eyes drooping closed.

Percy can't help but smile. "Hey, Neeks, it's a bit hard to walk at the moment. Want a piggy back ride?"

"Call me that again and you will lose something important to you. And if you try to do that to me in public I will make you suffer."

Percy pouted. "Fine, can I carry you? You weigh more than you used to. Good thing, by the way."

Nico grunts. "...fine."

Percy bends down and hooks an arm under Nico's knees, then brings him up. This is much, much better, but it would have been easier to do a piggy back ride.

Nico's head lolls onto Percy's shoulder, and snores obnoxiously. It's unclear if he's doing it on purpose or if he really is asleep.

Percy quickly finds a shitty motel and uses Nico's credit card to pay- he doesn't exactly have money on his own, and Nico isn't likely to complain. He smiles at the guy at the desk, and claims Nico is his younger cousin- it'll weird him out later that he isn't wrong.

Nico blinks a couple times, but stays still. He hears Percy call them cousins, and he wants to punch the idiot, because even if he's not wrong that isn't something Nico wants to think about.

When Percy gets to the room the front desk guy opens the door for him, and he's pretty sure the guy checks out his butt. He doesn't question it. He heads towards the beds- both twins- to set Nico down on one.

Nico grunts, and he glares death at the guy at the door. He knows how to convey complicated messages with only his eyes, and he promises a slow, painful death via rusty spoon.

Percy gently sets his "cousin" down on the bed, not realizing that Nico is awake.

The guy at the door left after about a minute, so Nico closes his eyes. Once he's put down, he grabs Percy's wrist.

Percy looks at him in surprise. "Nico?"

Nico glares, promising a death twice as painful as the one he'd promised that guy at the door.

Percy blinks in confusion. "What?"

Nico grunts, before sneering and turning his back on Percy to fall asleep.

Percy holds up his hands as if in defeat, pockets the credit card, and dumps his bag on the other bed. He's going exploring.


	10. Chapter 10

Percy Jackson had been exploring the county of Bernalilo for about six hours when he found himself an hour away from the last starbucks, and at the foot of a step pyramid. Luckily, he can see a starbucks and a McDonalds farther down the dirt road, but those could be a mirage. And, even though it is deep November, there are thousands of flowers in tropical colors around the step pyramid, and it's giving him whiplash. He tries to decide whether or not he wants to be here, then decides to walk down to the starbucks and McDonalds- ooh, there's a candy shop too, with blue things in it! It's about another four hours before he reaches the motel with Nico in it again.

Nico is dead asleep. He's shed his jacket, and cocooned himself in the blanket.

Percy drops the bag of blue candy into the fridge, then goes to the beds. After a few minutes, he falls into the second one, and pushes his bag off the bed.

Nico sleeps through all the noise Percy undoubtedly made. He was so tired, he could probably sleep for a week.

When Percy wakes up again, it's the next day and his hair is a mess to be reckoned with, and he has sand- oh. There. He takes a shower, but he knows it does not all get out. Then he wakes Nico up, shaking his shoulder- is twenty seven hours good enough?

Nico whines, low in his throat, and tries to roll away from whoever is waking him. He manages to roll off the other side of the bed with a loud squawk.

Percy gets onto the bed to look down at him. "Neeks?"

There is a 3 foot long Stygian Iron blade leveled at Percy's nose. "What did I say about calling me that?" He's glaring even harder than before, and there is a spark of madness In his eyes.

Percy holds up his hands in defeat. "That I'm adorable when you're angry?"

"You're not adorable. You're annoying." Nico disentangles himself from the blanket, still holding his sword threateningly.

"Yet you still love me and don't want to hurt me at all. I bought you McDonalds." He replies carefully.

"I- McDonalds?" Whatever Nico would've said is lost, and he suddenly looks like the fourteen year-old he is. "Did you get a happy meal?"

"Like six of them. I didn't know which type you wanted. There are a good fifteen toys too, I kinda raided the McDonalds by the pyramid."

Nico's eyes lit up. "I like all of them!" And then he processed the rest of that sentence. "Wait, you found the pyramid?! Why didn't you wake me we could've saved Jason already!"

"You were sleeping and I was walking for like, ten hours. By the way, the Starbucks next to the pyramid is good too."

Nico stares at him. "Does the fact that Jason could be killed at any moment _escape you?!_ He could already be dead!"

"Then let's go!" Percy crossed his arms. "See if I buy you things again."

Nico slaps a hand to his forehead. "I'm only yelling at you because _Jason could be dead_ and we're running on a tight schedule as it is! Let me get dressed and we'll go to the pyramid. Was anything magical happening?"

"There were flowers and I was uncomfortable." Percy shudders, remembering them. It was like Persephone went psychotic on the pyramid.

Nico frowns. He grabs his jacket and shrugs it on, thinking it over. "Okay... Lead the way."

Percy pulls on his own jacket and shoes, and grabs the shield he's been using lately, an imperial gold and leather monstrosity that could be put on his back when it wasn't on his arm. He smiles at Nico.

Nico grimaces. He tried for a smile, but he was having a hard time doing it. He couldn't tell if Jason was alive or dead, and it was freaking him out.

Percy leads the way to the pyramid, and this time it only takes an hour and a half and three hot chocolates to reach it.

Nico shivers, and as he nears the pyramid, his frown deepens. "It feels like... Lady Persephone. But also not at all like her magic."

"It feels wrong." Percy adds.

"Yes." Nico looks up at the top of the pyramid, just as something starts falling down the steps. "What...?"

Percy's eyes widen as it gets closer, and the bloody body of a girl- the Starbucks barista from the day before- rolls to a stop at their feet. Her shirt is ripped open, and a thick, bloody hole proves her heart to have been cut out. "Neeks, shadow travel us to the top, ASAFP."

Nico grabs Percy with both hands, doing what he's told. They appear behind a column, unseen by anyone at the top. Jason is tied to a table, looking a mixture of heartbroken and terrified. Mostly terrified.

Percy uncap riptide- obviously the least harmful blade to be nicked with- and starts on Jason's bonds. He barely spares him the time to look at him beyond making sure it is him.

Whoever killed the girl isn't here, but they'll be back any moment. The best way to make sure they don't kidnap Jason again is to make them think they don't need to. Nico has an idea, and he whispers the plan at Percy, hoping the older boy will hurry up so it will work.

Percy finishes getting Jason free, and hauls him up, nodding to Nico to do what he had proposed.

Nico takes a moment to memorize what Jason looked like, and projects a mistform image of him back onto the table. He drags Percy and Jason back behind the column, holding a finger to his lips. The mist-Jason is silently crying.

Percy bites his lip, squeezing Jason's hip reassuringly. Mac reenters the room, and takes the ceremonial onyx dagger to mist-Jason, dragging it down his cheek and laughing. "You are the most fun in centuries." He said, then took the knife down to cut into his chest.

Mist-Jason squeaks, and it takes all of Nico's concentration to keep this up. He grabs for Percy's hand. He has to make this look right, he has to make it feel real. He's never done something like this with mist before, hopefully it will work. Jason himself hides his face against Percy.

Percy squeezes Nico's hand, and leans his head against Jason's. He watches though, taking everything into account. He sees the wooden sword again- Eztli. Blood. Somehow he knows that is its name. He waits until Mac leaves before he ducks down to grab it, and look at Nico. "Is shadow traveling impossible?"

Nico blinks a few time, and he sees spots. "I-I c'n try..."

"You don't look good, Neeks. I don't want that strain on you. Is your weird ghost chauffeur still a thing?"

Nico frowns. "His name is Jules-Albert and he's a zombie." He wavers, a little. "My head hurts."

"Call him, I'll take care of the rest. Okay?" Percy puts Eztli on his back, under the shield, and pulls Nico to him so he can help him walk.

Nico waves his hand, and the zombified racecar driver appears, looking as prim and proper as a zombie could. Jason looked rather like he didn't know how to feel at the moment, aside from upset.

They go down the step pyramid's backside, and Percy doesn't even make any jokes. That's how mature he's become.

Nico is leaning very heavily onto his zombie driver, and Jason hasn't let go of Percy yet.

Percy makes Nico get in the back and curl up, and he helps Jason in next. He goes into the front, and smiles at the zombie "Uh, hi. Astoria motel. The one over there." He points.

Jules-Albert nods impassively, and heads in the direction indicated. Nico leans against Jason, who cuddles him, sniffling.

"Jason, we'll get you home soon. Neeks, can he take us to camp?"

"Mmhmm."

"After we get our stuff, we'll do that." Percy nods.

Nico mumbles a little, and Jason cuddles him more. Jules pulls in front of the hotel in almost no time, stepping out to open the door for Percy.

Percy puts everything in the back other than two happy meals- one for Jason and one for Nico- a big bag of chicken nuggets and the blue candy for himself, and the big fluffy blankets, one for Jason and Nico and the other for himself. He cuddles in the front seat, giving the chauffeur directions to New Rome.

Nico is curled against Jason, nibbling on the packet of apples he'd pilfered from the happy meal, and Jason doesn't make any move to eat.

It doesn't take long before Percy takes Eztli out to study. He had taken it on a whim, and now he feels connected to it. It's strange.

Jules rumbles, a noise of discomfort. Nico reaches forward blindly to comfort the zombie.

Percy runs his fingers over the wood, and knows that it and riptide are both astoundingly old, and that they have been around since before he was born and that they will survive when he dies. It's nearly humbling.

Jules continues to drive, but he keeps mumbling and complaining about something. Nico's not awake enough to understand him, so he just gently tells the zombie it'll be ok.

Percy sets Eztli down on the floorboard, thinking about things other than it.

Jules gets them to New Rome in record time, and Nico thanks him tiredly.

Percy starts to get their stuff together, and finds a duffle bag to shove his blanket, the McDonalds, and Eztli into. He slings both bags over his shoulder and helps Jason out of the car.

Jason lets himself be led, still more than a little shaken. Nico is more awake, but that's not saying much. Jules helps him out of the car, draping the blanket around his shoulders like a cape.

There are whispers as they cross the bridge. Frank and a daughter of mercury that Percy doesn't know the name of meets them. Frank looks worried and a bit confused, and anyone who was nearby looks surprised to see them.

Nico sneezes, which makes Jason latch onto Percy.

Frank looks them over. "What happened?" Percy merely shakes his head.

Nico yawns, and leans on his chauffeur. "I'll tell you later." He mumbles in Frank's direction.

A golf car driven by Piper shows up, and they all get into it, with the exception of Nico's chauffeur.

Jules disappears into the ground, a small patch of dirt the only sign he'd been there at all. Jason clings to Percy, and Nico leans on someone.

Piper drives them to their house, where Annabeth and Octavian are sitting on the porch together. Octavian is so engrossed in their conversation that he doesn't hear the golf cart.

Jason gets off the cart and pretty much just plops next to Octavian, clearly looking for comfort. Fluffy, who had been rather distraught since Jason disappeared, makes a whining noise from inside the house.

Octavian looks up in surprise, then lights up, wrapping his arms around Jason. He buries his face in his neck, mumbling apologies.

Jason clings. He doesn't particularly feel like talking right now, and hasn't really made any attempts to yet. Nico wanders over, yawning.

Percy puts all of their stuff inside while Piper zips away to return the golf cart.

Nico sits down next to Jason, who has wrapped himself around Octavian.

Annabeth smiles at Jason. "Glad you're back, Grace."

He nods a little, and loosens his hold on Octavian. A little. Not really.

Octavian looks back at Annabeth. "Thank you for everything. We can talk more later on, okay?"

Annabeth nods, with a twitch of the lips that could be a smile. Or a grimace. She walks away. Nico has fallen asleep.

Octavian turns back to Jason. "It's my fault. I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault at all." Jason grumbles. Nico nods a little. "Aztecs."

"I feel like it is, though." He mumbles.

Jason shook his head. "Not your fault." He pokes Octavian's chest with each word.

Octavian closes his eyes. "Annabeth is helping me."

Jason frowns. "With what?"

"Temples. Coping. Keeping my mind off you. Eating more than just eel and mint ice cream." 

Jason nods. "Okay." He sighs a little. "Sorry for worrying you."

"Don't, don't do that." Octavian says through clenched teeth.

Jason blinks. "What?"

"Blame yourself for this." Octavian shakes his head. "It isn't you."

Jason frowns. "But. You were worried because of me. It's my fault they got into New Rome, I led them here."

"You did nothing wrong. Stop blaming yourself for coming home." Octavian opens his eyes. "Alright?"

Jason bites his lip. "I... Okay."

"You'll keep doing it, won't you?"

Jason blinked, and tried to look innocent. "Whaaat? Noooo."

Octavian narrowed his eyes. "You need sleep. We all need sleep. Should we go inside? Our room? Our bed is big enough for everyone."

Jason nods a little. "I dunno if I can sleep, but. I'd like that." Nico snores behind them.

Octavian kissed Jason lightly. Softly. Gently.

Jason smiles into the kiss, humming softly.

Octavian doesn't move to deepen the kiss, he's too busy feeling like he might cry.

Jason pulls back, and cups Octavian's cheek. "You okay?"

"No." Octavian pulls back to lean his forehead against Jason's. "Nothing has gotten better."

Jason frowns a little worriedly. "What can I do to help?"

"Nothing. It's not just you, it's." He sighs. "Kym called me while you were gone."

Jason makes a worried noise, and his thumb traces the curve of Octavian's cheek. "What happened?"

"She asked me how things were going. Told me to get her messages out. Wanted me to show her things."

Jason nods slowly. "Okay..."

"Annabeth and I are working hard. Just because we're working, though, that doesn't mean I don't want you too."

Jason nods again. "I understand. I'd been planning to scout out the area around Camp Half-Blood, before. See where there would be a good area to start putting temples." Jason bit his lip. "I... don't really want to leave anytime soon, anymore, though."

"I understand. We all need to stay here for a while." Octavian kisses him lightly again.

Jason sighs a little, happily, and leans into Octavian a bit. "I was scared."

Octavian nods.

"The girl, her name was Jacklyn. Jacklyn Grace. She was a barista and she had a puppy and they ripped out her heart and threw her down the side of the pyramid. Nico made them think they did it to me, too. I've never been that scared before."

"I'm sorry about her, Jason. Maybe we can send her something? Send her family condolences, maybe we can send someone to go get her puppy? We can take care of it as a favor and a thank you for her sacrifice. I am so happy you weren't hurt, but it's alright, we can do something. I can do something."

Jason hides his face in Octavian's shoulder. "Okay. I. I just. I can't stop picturing her screaming."

"We're you two in the same room?"

Jason nods. "I don't know where we were at first, but that morning they moved us to the top of the pyramid, and held us there for... I don't know how long, I couldn't really tell time too well... Jacklyn and I talked, and she was so nice. She was a just a mortal, I don't know why they picked her."

"Your names. Jacklyn, Jason. Jason, Jae Quinn."

Jason blinked. "Jae Quinn noticed that before, but I'm sure that's not it. Why wouldn't they grab her again, if that were the reason?"

"She had their weapon, she was hidden, as far as Annabeth and I can tell. That's what the weapons do, the marking in the wood gives the owner protection."

Jason blinked. "Oh. Huh. Percy took the other one."

"Stick close to Percy, then." Octavian smiled. "What do you think he took it for?"

"Dunno. Wasn't paying very close attention to him. I was kinda alternating between terror and worry for Nico. He looked like he was gonna throw up a few times on the way here."

"Would you talking to him be a good idea?"

"Maybe? I don't know. I just want to stay with you guys and cuddle."

"Well, luckily, Percy is a part of the 'you guys'."

Jason nods. "Yeah. Should we go inside? I don't think Nico should sleep outside like this."

"Can you stand?" Octavian asks.

Jason nods. "Sure." He gently sits Nico up, and stands.

Octavian stands, albeit slightly shakily.

Jason kneels and picks up Nico, bundled up in the stolen blanket.

Octavian opens the door for them.  
Inside, Percy has been staring at Eztli and tracing his fingers over the carvings, over the obsidian shards, trying to figure out what was so important about it.

Jason sets Nico down on the couch, and the younger boy mumbles in his sleep, rolling farther away from the edge.

Percy doesn't hear them come in, still touching Eztli. Octavian watches him do that for a few minutes, wanting to see what he'd do before he interrupts.

Jason makes sure Nico is okay, before turning toward Percy.

Percy's finger is hovering over an etched flower when he realizes the pair of eyes watching him. "Yes?"

Jason frowns a little. He shrugs, and glances at Octavian.

Octavian smiles at Percy. "Didn't mean to interrupt." Percy looked between him and Jason. "Uh huh. And?"

"Octavian wanted to know if you wanted in on the cuddle pile." Jason looks a little hopeful.

"Yeah, sounds, um." Percy coughs. "Good. It sounds great."

Jason smiles a little hopefully.

Percy nods, and Octavian looks between them. "Are we cuddling and talking or cuddling and sleeping?" He asks. "Because I might need a couple nyquil for the latter."

"Whatever you guys wanna do, I wanna cuddle."

"Talk until the nyquil kicks in, then? I haven't taken my medication today anyways." Octavian crosses his arms.

Jason nods. "Okay." Nico mumbles.

Octavian starts for the upstairs bathroom, leaving Percy, Jason and Nico. Percy rubs the back of his neck. "Is it okay if we not talk about what I was doing when you walked in?"

Jason shrugs a little. "I won't force you if you don't wanna tell me." Jason picks up Nico again.

"Thank you." Percy smiles.

Jason nods. Nico yawns, waking up.

Percy lights up. "Neeks!"

Nico snarls.

Percy's smile brightened in response.

Jason glances at him worriedly. Nico glares, baring his teeth. He doesn't look so much threatening, as he does like an angry Chihuahua.

"Neeks," Percy starts. "It will take more than that to scare me. Besides, it's cuddle time now!"

Nico hits Jason until he put him down. Nico lunges at Percy.

Percy dodges him, reaching for Eztli almost instinctively.

Jason grabs Nico around the waist. "Woah. Woah, calm down. Bad."

Percy drops the sword as soon as he realizes he's picked it up. "I- I." He sprints for the stairs.

Jason holds Nico until the younger boy calms down.

At the top of the stairs, Percy bumps into a much calmer and relaxed Octavian, who grabs his arm to keep from falling. "Hey, calm, calm. Whatever is wrong, we can handle." Octavian smiles at Percy, and Percy nods, though part of him wonders what has the other so dazed. He ignores it in favor of the matter at hand. "I almost stabbed Nico when he lunged at me, but not with riptide- with Eztli." He says uneasily. Octavian nods. "It's fine, cuddling will fix it." The blonde replies airily. He disappears for a moment to go get Jason and Nico, and then he leads them all to the big bed- his and Jason's.

Jason keeps a hold of Nico, who grumbles but doesn't try anything.

Octavian makes Jason and Nico lie down first, then has Percy get on the opposite side of Jason. One problem, though? Now he hovers by the bed, unsure of where he goes.

Jason reaches for Octavian, whining softly.

Octavian wants to get on the bed, but with Percy and Nico in his way, he doesn't know how to get to Jason.

Nico shifts a little, trying to let Octavian pass him.

Octavian lays down and sidles up next to Jason as close as he can, closing his eyes and mumbling things that don't make sense.

Jason curls around Octavian, and Nico cuddles up to Percy.

Percy whispers apologies to Nico for pulling Eztli on him. Octavian presses soft kisses to any part of Jason he can reach.

Nico pats Percy's face. Jason kisses Octavian's hair.

Any talking that Octavian wanted to do is lost now. Percy pulls a big blanket over all of them.

Jason cuddles him. Nico nuzzles Percy.

It isn't long before Octavian falls asleep. Percy is nearing sleep.

Jason falls asleep cuddled against Octavian, mumbling. Nico snores.

Percy is last, thinking about how pretty Nico is, even in the dark.


End file.
